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5 Mrs. Koehler at Middlebury Manor
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75` FIVE Mrs. Koehler at Middlebury Manor I don’t know where else I would want to be. I really don’t. I mean, there’s a lot of big places around with big names, but that didn’t interest me in the least. I would rather be right here. I really would, because to me it’s just a family. —mrs. pierson Just in from sunning herself on the front porch, a tanned Mrs. Koehler confidently maneuvered her motorized wheelchair off the elevator and around the wheelchairs and walkers that crowded the hallway outside the hair salon. She cheerfully greeted everyone but did not pause to chat. The white noise and warmth from the portable hair dryers in the hallway had lulled some of the waiting ladies to sleep. Call-buttons buzzed, and James Taylor crooned over the intercom system. It was Wednesday , Jennifer’s day to shampoo and set residents’ hair. With what some might regard as “airs,” Mrs. Koehler whirred past the smell of hair spray and the sleepy women, not wanting to miss the next rerun of Law and Order, the program around which she ordered her day. Upstairs, in one of the recently vacated private rooms, Middlebury Manor’s administrator was replacing light bulbs and cleaning the carpet. The activity coordinator was downstairs busily preparing for morning devotions and exercise class. An aide was wheeling the last of several residents from the dining room to the front sitting room, where the residents would sit quietly, only occasionally breaking the silence with a comment about the weather or the oft-repeated question “So, what is happening today?” Middlebury Manor was the home of 81-year-old Mrs. Koehler and 40 other men and women. Through her experiences, we learn more about this place and what life is like for one of its residents. Like Middlebury 76 INSIDE ASSISTED LIVING Manor, which has operated in the community for many years, Mrs. Koehler ’s social connections run deep. Her story illustrates the many twists and turns experienced by someone in later life as these events relate to longterm care, especially the movement between an assisted living facility and a nursing home, and reveals the personal emotions and cultural attitudes triggered by confrontation with hard choices. Her story also demonstrates the financial and interpersonal hardships families often encounter in this process. And we will learn more about the challenges small businesses like Middlebury Manor face in today’s market and meet some of Mrs. Koehler ’s fellow residents. Getting to Know Middlebury Manor The Place and Its History The unincorporated town of Middlebury borders a very large metropolitan city. Despite its proximity to a large urban center, Middlebury has an indisputable small-town feel. Middlebury Manor identifies itself as “lowcost provider,” drawing most of its residents through word of mouth from this tightly knit middle-class community. It’s not unusual for residents to have previously participated in a worship service at the Manor as a volunteer from the nearby church or to have paid a visit to a friend, neighbor, or relative who resided there. Residents tend to know each other or the family that owns and operates Middlebury Manor before moving in. Perhaps because of this, the residents of Middlebury Manor seem willing to accept occasional disruptions in facility services, even pitching in to help the staff with tasks of running the place when needed. Middlebury Manor is a second-generation family-run and -operated assisted living facility. In the 1950s, Mr. Baker, the family’s patriarch, purchased a poorly run board-and-care domiciliary home operating out of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century mansion. After some renovations and other improvements, he established a nursing home in the days before nursing homes were so highly regulated. Nearly 40 years later, in 1992, faced with increasingly strict federal regulations, the next generation of the Baker family converted the mansion into an assisted living facility. It had become difficult to keep the building up to federal nursing home standards, so they decided to build a new 50- [18.212.87.137] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:19 GMT) MRS. KOEHLER AT MIDDLEBURY MANOR 77 bed nursing home connected to the original structure via an enclosed passageway . It made good sense to transform the mansion into a residence for assisted living, a model of care that was just taking off then and did not demand the same level of building and equipment requirements. With a newly earned business...