“It seems as though I’ve had a connection to this home ever since it was first put together by Pastor Syrdal and the churches,” says Eunice Hegg, a 98-years-young resident of the Madison Healthcare Services Care Center.
Like many in the community, Hegg had ties to MHS long before moving to the care center from Hilltop Apartments. Along with farming and raising a family, she served as the organist at many area churches over the years, among them the care center chapel where she played for over 20 years.
“Myself and the CEO at the time and one of the board members went and bought that organ and the pianos that they still have here. I used to kid them that they only came along to keep me from spending to much money,” she says with a laugh.
So when it came time to move to a long term care facility, the MHS care center was already a bit of a home away from home, and, she says, the natural choice. Particularly since it meant being able to stay in Madison.
“My husbands ties were more to Madison, and it was Madison we moved to when we moved from our farm in Providence Township in 1977.”
Four years after moving into the care center, Hegg says she can’t imagine a better place to be living
“It’s beautiful, for one thing. And the people (the care center staff) – it just seems like the most important thing to them, is taking care of us. When you have that feeling, you know you’re going to have good care.”
Hegg, who uses a wheelchair, likes to spend time relaxing in her room – her newest preoccupation being the iPad her niece recently gave her – and she greatly enjoys the privacy the single occupant rooms afford her.
“It used to be when I first came up here that two people lived in a room, but a few years ago they changed them all over to singles. And I like that much better.”
She also enjoys the safety and assurance that come with living in the care center.
“I’ve known so many people who’ve said, ‘I’m not going to the (nursing) home.’ But for me, especially not having any family in the area, it’s just the best place I could be. It’s beautiful,” she adds, “and it’s clean and the people are wonderful. It’s just a lovely place to live.”
-Lydia Rebehn, Western Guard 10/16/2018
