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Our Staff Goes the Extra Mile

The vital ingredient is individualized care. We say frequently that residents at Bridges are our friends, but we’re not surprised if you bring a healthy skepticism to that claim. The best way to give you an idea of just what we mean is to tell you some unique Bridges experiences.

True stories – part of daily life at a Bridges residence.

• One of our residents, when he lived in his own home, sent chocolate-covered almonds to his friends every Christmas.  As the years passed, he could no longer handle the task of ordering and coordinating his Christmas gift tradition.  And eventually he even forgot what and from which catalog he ordered.  After he became a part of the Bridges family, we learned of this tradition and researched catalogs until we found the long-lost, chocolate-covered almonds (no other would do).  We now coordinate the shipping and the tradition that means so much to him.

• A retired Wall Street oil analyst, legally blind, was a Bridges resident.  Every morning a staff member read the stock reports to him.  We knew whether the Dow Jones was up or down every day!  Because he also liked to keep up with the sports scores, we became very familiar with the details of how “his Yankees” were doing.

• A 90-year-old resident once owned a lake cottage, but had sold it more than 25 years before coming to Bridges.  We heard many pleasant stories of her time at the lake.  One day we took her on a drive and, as a special surprise, found her beloved cottage.  With permission from the owners, we had a picnic on the shore where she’d spent many summers.  She still talks about that day.

• One of our Bridges residents was helping a daughter with her flower boxes.  The resident was quite particular that the flowers all be the same color, and we were happy to oblige (even though it meant a forty-mile round trip to a greenhouse to fulfill her color scheme).

• We made arrangements for a 92-year-old Bridges resident to spend an afternoon at his favorite “fishing hole” two counties away.

• One of our residents was particularly fond of a wildflower remembered from a long-ago youth.  One afternoon a staff person drove her to the woods and went on a memorable hunt for that wildflower.

At Bridges, we truly listen to our residents to learn what might make them happy and do our best to accomplish it. We could tell you more stories, but we think by now you’ll see the nature of the relationships – the friendships – that develop between Bridges residents and staff members. We look forward to the possibility of developing a friendship with you and adding your stories to the Bridges family scrapbook.

Click here to find out more about Bridges.