HOW SWEET IT IS!

Way back in 2001 as President of the Board of Directors, I met a woman who had a daughter living in our Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) and her daughter was in a hospital receiving a tracheotomy. One day her son visited his sister and was told by a hospital nurse that since his sister was away from the ICF for more than 2 weeks she would lose her place there. The rules back then were that if you stayed away from the ICF for more than 2 weeks, you indeed lost your bed.

The brother went home and told his mother this news and mom immediately demanded a meeting with the executive director of the agency, the program director, and the president of the board to discuss this matter.

It was a hot June day in the small conference room outside the executive director’s office when we met around the conference room table. Suddenly Mom started the conversation and immediately started into a sobbing tearful discourse about the fact that she had nowhere t place her daughter.

I reassured her by saying I was a parent also. We reassured her that we would not abandon her daughter and sought a solution for temporary shelter until a place back in our ICF was available.

After the meeting, I met with the executive director and I suggested that we create a convalescence facility on the grounds like a hospital, with as much equipment as possible with hospital beds that our population could heal and be attended to by our staff, people who knew our population best. The board approved my suggestion after some modifications and so the facility was built. I didn’t realize at the time how important this would be.

Fast forward, to this year and my daughter is rehabbing from her hip operation, and where is she spending her time? In the facility, I asked for so many years ago!