Story by Mary Jo Pipkin, Executive Director -

In April, I toured and lunched with a daughter living in Cedar Rapids and father living in a 55+ community out  near Martha’s Vineyard, Connecticut. Pretty neat guy, was a chauffeur for a multi-millionaire for years, drove Barbara Bush around many times and she always gave him a $20 tip. Anyway, his wife is in a nursing home in Conneticut with Vascular dementia, diabetic, incontinent, etc…  The biggest obstacle in getting him to move to Cedar Rapids to Place was leaving her behind in CT. Pretty tough to think about never seeing her again, but they were considering it! They didn’t think transferring her would be possible in any way.

I gave them a solution to this problem. I have a couple C.N.A.’s at Cedars that are excited to help the cause – my angels are Julie and Cassandra.  The daughter, father, myself and the 2 staff all met yesterday and, in July, the girl’s and the daughter are going to fly out on a Saturday and bring the mother back on Sunday and place her in a nursing home ½ mile from Keystone Place here.  He walks 2 miles a day and will be able to walk over and see her on nice days and get a ride when the weather turns bad.  He took his grandson for another look yesterday at Place and Terry, our Concierge, showed him around.  I asked how he felt about Place the 2nd time around, and he said his tour with Terry was the icing on the cake!  He told me yesterday he is ready to move in to Place tomorrow!

He will move out as soon as his wife is settled here. It’s been a thrilling adventure helping this family out. We’ve hugged and been close to tears thinking this possibility will be a reality. They are incredible people with wonderful stories.  I love my job-thank you both!  – Mary Jo