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Luther Park Resident Family Journeys My mother was at Gloria Dei Farms and doing well until she had pneumonia five years ago. She was so weak she couldn’t live on her own. She went to a nursing home for a little bit. I wasn’t sure how she would do in a personal care community. I didn’t know if she really needed a skilled nursing facility.
We came here, and I could see that mother was happy and she’s doing very well. Even though we knew about Luther Park, we looked at some other places first. Some of them shared a bathroom between two rooms. My mother didn’t like that at all. She wants her own bathroom. It’s very private. I would recommend Luther Park to anyone, and I have. My mother was living with me for seven years. Just her and I. It was getting to the point where it couldn’t go 10 minutes without helping her or she would interrupt me and I worked at home, which was both good and bad. One day she tried to cook a bowl of sugar on the stove. Something like that certainly plays a role in upping all of our anxiety levels. And if your loved one’s on their own, it’s even worse. They could die. My mother still made a beautiful bed, could dress herself, but her cognitive abilities go from decent moments to losing it. What John talked about is on point. His mother’s 1100 miles away, I was taking care of mother in my own house and I still couldn’t manage my mother’s medicine as well as I needed to. When I first decided an assisted living community might be best I searched the Internet and looked for something local because we wanted to keep her close. We also talked to medical professionals that visit Luther Park. They told us they would put any one of their loved ones here. You don’t need much more than that. My sister would help because she was a nurse. She works with a group of visiting nurses. She came here first and just loved the place.We also looked at some very expensive places. In many cases, they wanted substantially more money. They tried to dazzle you with their technology, but in many cases they didn’t provide the amenities that Luther Park does. In one case, the facility was brand new and very nice but six residents shared the shower. That just wouldn’t cut it for my mother.
My dad was living in the city but he was having trouble getting around. He had trouble going up and down the steps and the only bathroom was upstairs. I was really afraid he was going to fall down the steps. The scariest time was when none of us had heard from dad in a while. I went to his house and he didn’t answer the door. I couldn’t open it because it was braced from the inside. I climbed up the water spout, quite a feat at my age, and broke the window. When I found him his back was to me and he didn’t answer. I was really afraid he was dead. We knew it was time.
Twelve years ago we moved mother into Gloria Dei Farms because her house was too much for her. About five years ago she started to show signs of memory loss and we needed to move her pretty quickly. Even though Luther Park was right here, my sister and I looked all over. We set up interviews to meet at other places. We did find the cost of other places to be substantially higher. Of course, her being comfortable was the most important thing, but finances played a role. I asked a lot of questions such as, what is your nurse to patient ratio? Who gives out the medicine? A lot of places couldn’t even answer those basic questions.
I don’t know why we looked all over, but I’m glad we did, because now we know we picked the right place. It helped us knowing we considered everything before making our final decision. I have a similar story. My father was living on his own. He had a stroke in the summer and it was obvious he couldn’t be living on his own. He had Abington Home Care and they would check in on him a couple times a week. Even with the visiting nurse he would still be isolated so I started looking into assisted living just in case he needed more and the therapist recommended Luther Park. Before the stroke he used to do things. There weren’t that many people in his community that could do things and I just thought what better place than assisted living where they had activities and nursing on-board. My father passed away in the summer, but before that he came out of his situation and was participating in the activities. Every time I would take him to my house he would ask me when I was going to take him back, he wanted to go home to Luther Park. My father was totally satisfied to be here. He would rather be here than at my house or my brother’s. That was very comforting to me because it was a big decision. If I put him here and he didn’t like it, the guilt would have been devastating. But it was completely opposite here at Luther Park. I looked at other places with my brother before selecting Luther Park. We went to some very large communities. They had lots of bells and whistles but we didn’t like them. I just knew they wouldn’t be for my dad. It’s important to know that before Luther Park, my father also spent some time in a rehab. He was on medications, and I really didn’t know what they were, but I knew he wasn’t acting normal. I thought maybe he had Alzheimer’s. Immediately after moving here he improved. At the rehab I had to feed him, he was in a wheelchair and he would never get out of it. But maybe that’s how they wanted him. When he came here and his medication was changed, there was a complete turnaround. Before we brought him here, my big feeling was guilt. I felt so guilty that my father was at a point and I was at a point that we couldn’t do it any more. I had all this guilt. It was such a relief when he came to Luther Park and embraced it. It was such a good decision that I made that the guilt was lifted off my shoulders.
I believe the staff does go far above and beyond at Luther Park than any other place does. When he got all his meds back together he returned to more of himself, he returned to me. I couldn’t believe it because we weren’t even sure Luther Park would have been enough. Our concern was that he may really have needed a nursing home but Luther Park brought him back closer to what he was before. Luther Park brought him back to me. I tell people Luther Park is the only place for someone you cherish. My mother had a hip operation and she had to go to rehab. We looked at a couple of places, we even had her in another place but she didn’t like it. She likes it here, the whole homey atmosphere. There’s also a significant Catholic presence which is comforting to her. It was important to know how it was for my mother. It’s fine for me to be happy, but it’s more important for her to be happy.
If eyes could kill I would have been dead when mom was in a rehab. As soon as we got her back here everything changed. Her mindset, her spirits and her recovery all improved. It’s home to her. My mother has since passed away. Luther Park helped me be very comfortable that I was making the right decisions every step of the way. They really supported me. My mom was in Florida. They told us she couldn’t live on her own any more and she needed an assisted living facility. My family lives in different parts of the country. We met and decided I would find the place, so I started looking around. Luther Park just happens to be close to where I live. But that wasn’t the determining factor. It was the atmosphere when I came here that made me decide this is where she should be. I was concerned she would try to convert all the Lutherans to Catholicism and she’d be tossed out, but she’s still here. How could it be anything other than a comfort feeling if you’re bringing your parent or loved one into this kind of situation. The distance isn’t a player, the money is irrelevant, they were all within a reasonable span. I walked in here and if it were me, this is where I’d want to be. At the time my mother’s cognitive abilities were more the fact that she either over or under medicated herself on a daily basis. That’s one of the big things I wanted people to oversee. That was a big thing for me that someone would be there to monitor her medication. There was an immediate difference when she came here.
My dad has been gone for 13 years and before he passed he was in a nursing home. It was only a matter of a couple weeks when my mother said this is no good, he has to go to St. Charles where the nuns are. I said you’re in Port Charles Florida, so the labor pool is the same. Mom said, yea but there are nuns. He lived there three or four years, but the help was the same. It is different here at Luther Park. The staff is different here. I don’t know how you can use that because it shows, but it’s not that obvious when you’re making a decision. This is a better place than we chose, far better than I ever imagined it could be. Call Luther Park. It’s a no brainer. |
