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Juanita North is a resident of Royal Atrium Inn in Zeeland, Michigan.
guest post by Juanita North,
resident of Royal Atrium Inn,
a Providence Life Services community
in Zeeland, Michigan
I didn’t know who I was. I had started life as an only daughter. Then I was a sister. Then I was a student, and after high school I became a wife (for 70 years!). Motherhood followed, and grandmother-hood, and great grandmother-hood! For most of my life, my only title was “Mrs.”
Then my husband died, and I had to rediscover myself. What was my purpose for living? What are my likes and dislikes? What skills do I have? What activities do I enjoy?
I was living near my daughter in South Carolina, in an Assisted Living community, but my daughter in Michigan had asked me many times to move back to Michigan. One day she called to tell me she had found the perfect place for me — Royal Atrium Inn. I was fairly content in South Carolina, but when my Michigan daughter sent a video of my great-grandson, five months old and cooing, I knew that I wanted to be closer to him.
My journey of self-discovery began with the road trip from South Carolina to Michigan. I felt like a five-year-old again! The winding road, uphill and down, felt like a roller coaster, and I was delighted. I hadn’t seen a cow or a horse for almost 15 years, but in Michigan they dotted the landscape. The good, black dirt and the beautiful farmland made me think of picking strawberries when I was a girl, and selling them at the roadside.
We finally reached Zeeland, and we pulled in to Royal Atrium Inn. The nursing aides made me feel right at home. The meals were full of fresh farm vegetables, followed by fresh baked pie. People called me by my first name, and it sounded like music to me. I felt young again!
This old woman has been busy and happy since the first week here. I’ve watched sailboat races at the beach, had picnic lunches with my family, driven on a one-way bridge, and participated in a community fishing tournament! (In fact, my great-granddaughter won second prize for the second-longest fish!)
Last September, my family celebrated my 90th birthday, and I had two turkey legs. All through my growing-up years, the turkey legs had been set aside, saying, “Those are for Grandma.” Now they were for me!
In November, the snowy view from my bay window was so pretty, it made me want to go out and make snow angels.
In December, the “new me” bought a pink Christmas tree and placed it in the window. It stayed there until after New Year’s. My daughter and I attended a concert next door at Royal Park Place, my first concert. And my family helped me celebrate at the Royal Atrium Inn Christmas Party.
This past year I went to the Tulip Festival, the Kite Festival, and the Atlantic Ocean. Some of these were things I had never done before; others were things I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do again.
After a year here at Royal Atrium Inn, I am still discovering myself. There are so many ways to make my life exciting, and it’s fun to have my children and grandchildren discover me with me! I thank God for my beautiful family, His beautiful creation, and the beautiful opportunities that each new day brings. I love my new life at Royal Atrium Inn!
by Melanie Jongsma, Director of Communications
“Visionary.” “Cutting-edge.” “Technologically savvy.” These are not usually the first phrases used when someone is describing a senior living community. More often, the people we serve want to be assured of tradition, familiarity, and community.
But Providence Life Services believes that visionary technology and traditional community do not have to be an either/or choice. Instead, we are using technology to enhance community.
For example, all of our locations — retirement living, assisted living, and skilled nursing — have a Facebook page. Staff at each location post news and photos that give people a sense of what life is like at that community. Birthday parties, Wii tournaments, chapel services, visits from local legislators — all these and more are highlighted.
Families are loving it.
“Wow!! This site is great,” wrote one family member on the Royal Park Place Facebook page. “Now I can talk to my father-in-law about the pictures we have seen, since we live in Florida and have not been [to his retirement community] yet.”
A young family in San Antonio, Texas, has used the Village Woods Facebook page to keep in touch with their grandmother, Helen. Via Facebook they have shared photos of their involvement in a 5K race to raise money for the American Lung Association, announced the upcoming arrival of Helen’s 100th grandchild, and posted photos of their three dogs. Village Woods staff print the family’s photos and announcements and deliver them to Helen, who loves being connected across the country this way.
Families are also using Facebook to express appreciation for the Providence staff who faithfully care for the residents. During National Nurses Week, our pages were filled with comments like this one from a Holland Home family member:
“My mom lives on the second floor. Any time she has needed more care, the nurses at Holland Home have been so wonderful…!!!! Everyone there is so nice…and it is so comforting to know that my mom is in such a caring place. She just loves it there. And I want to say Thank You all for what you do. It is so important, and it doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Providence is even beginning to attract the attention of other senior living experts who want to understand the thinking behind our use of Facebook and other social media. Debra Sheridan, President of IVY Marketing, a consulting firm that specializes in the senior living industry, posted this article about Providence several weeks ago. And our participation in a “Social Media Insights” panel gave us an opportunity to help other retirement communities who are unsure about how to use tools like Facebook, blogging, Twitter, and YouTube.
Want to find us on Facebook? The links to all of our communities are included below. We hope you’ll “like” our pages, and interact with the information and photos we post. After all, that kind of interaction is what real community is all about!
In fact, if you have a favorite Providence community, forward its Facebook link to all your friends, and see which community can attract the most “likes”!
Find us on Facebook:
Providence Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center
• of Downers Grove
• of Palos Heights
• of South Holland
• of Zeeland
Providence Life Services (corporate office)
by Melanie Jongsma, Director of Communications
You may have noticed in our newsletter articles and previous blogs that Providence Life Services appreciates technology. We are not a technology company, but we understand that technology is a powerful tool. We get especially excited when we find ways to use technology for enhancing relationships.
So when a company called Status Solutions developed a Situational Awareness and Response Assistant — SARA — Providence saw the benefits. So far, we’ve installed SARA in three of our communities: Palos Heights’ Providence Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center and Zeeland’s Royal Park Place retirement community and Royal Atrium Inn Assisted Living community. SARA allows residents of these communities to alert caregivers whenever they need help — in both emergency and non-emergency situations.
As a result, seniors are safer and their families worry less — and that kind of peace of mind helps make relationships less strained.
Providence of Palos Heights is one of our skilled nursing/rehab communities, and Royal Atrium Inn is our Assisted Living community in Zeeland. “Wander detection” is important in these communities because people with memory issues tend to want to roam. At Providence, we want to provide as much independence as possible, without opening up anyone to danger. SARA has an egress monitoring system that frees us to keep doors unlocked, because it sounds an alert when the doors are opened or left ajar, it triggers magnetic locks on the exit doors, and it sends calls and emails to staff. The SARA system gives us a beautiful balance of freedom and safety.
Royal Park Place is our retirement community in Zeeland. Their needs are different from the needs of a skilled nursing or Assisted Living setting, but SARA has capabilities that benefit them as well. SARA’s wireless emergency call capabilities will enhance not only safety but also efficiency. We set it up to send voice and text alerts to people’s pagers, email, telephones, cell phones, radios, and CCTV, and — so both staff and residents can be notified of important events at any time, wherever they are located. A wireless pendant (pictured above) will be available soon as well. Having all these communication options available means staff members will be able to address safety concerns or environmental problems before they turn into emergencies.
And SARA is easy to maintain and support. Our in-house technology experts, ProviNET Solutions, are the first line of support for any technical issues that may come up. In fact, with remote access, ProviNET staff can log into Royal Park Place’s SARA server, diagnose, and resolve a problem without ever leaving their office.
Technology is exciting, and it’s fun to have the latest gadgets and gizmos. But the real excitement comes when that technology makes life better for everyone.
Do you agree? Or do you think that most seniors find technology to be a hindrance rather than a help? Post a comment to let me know what you think — and share examples from your own experience to illustrate your point!
Glimpses of Providence 