Speaker 1: And some of our seniors have cognitive deficits, and so
Speaker 1: the kids are actually mentors to them.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: So like our preschool class just a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: did an Easter egg where they had to had to
Speaker 1: match the colors, and we have a lady that isn't
Speaker 1: able to do that anymore, and these preschoolers go and
Speaker 1: they're helping her.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's like completely flipped.
Speaker 1: But like that that empathy and compassion and that's they
Speaker 1: don't question that because.
Speaker 3: They know her and they know that she can no
Speaker 3: longer do that. They also know that she has a
Speaker 3: story where she used to be able to do that.
Speaker 3: Do you know what I mean? She used to be
Speaker 3: a teacher, and I do. I do a lot.
Speaker 2: Actually, how could you not watch it?
Speaker 1: It is and it's natural, it's very natural. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of those things I don't plan, They just happen.
Speaker 3: And even in my sketch books, I didn't sketch those things.
Speaker 1: They just are When you put people together and they're
Speaker 1: actually building relationships, beautiful things happen.
Speaker 2: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
Speaker 2: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father.
Speaker 2: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in
Speaker 2: inner city Memphis, and the last part it somehow led
Speaker 2: to an oscar for the film about our team. That
Speaker 2: movie is called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems
Speaker 2: will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people
Speaker 2: in nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses
Speaker 2: on sinon and box, but rather by an army of
Speaker 2: normal folks. That's us, just you and me, deciding hey,
Speaker 2: maybe I can help. That's what Aaron Steele, the voice
Speaker 2: you just heard, has done. Aaron is the founder of
Speaker 2: the Heritage Home, an intergenerational senior living facility and childcare
Speaker 2: center in Alma, Kansas, which basically means she's combined a
Speaker 2: nursing home and a childcare center into one place, and
Speaker 2: there's all kinds of benefits for the seniors and for
Speaker 2: the kids being with one another every day, which I
Speaker 2: cannot wait for you to hear about right after these
Speaker 2: brief messages from our general sponsors. Aaron Steel, Welcome to Memphis.
Speaker 2: Thank you from where do you hail?
Speaker 1: I'm from Wamego, Kansas, which okay, kind of in between
Speaker 1: Tapeaka and Manhattan.
Speaker 2: I feel like we should do a hea hal salut
Speaker 2: when we say one mego, how me go?
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: How many folks live in Onemigo, Kansas.
Speaker 1: I don't even know, maybe five thousand somewhere around there, so.
Speaker 2: Have a small area. Hou's flight in flew in, right, yep, just.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So I've seen it all.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, I'm glad Alex picked you up. Sometimes
Speaker 2: he makes guess take ubers or he is laid.
Speaker 3: He made it very easy on me, Yes, yeah he did.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's improving at his job. What do you think
Speaker 2: it was only the one time I hear I bought
Speaker 2: that car stopped working one month. Then yeah, that's one
Speaker 2: of the guests that I had an uber from the airport.
Speaker 2: Oh no, it's because he bought a hooptie that didn't work.
Speaker 3: Well, CarMax A good impression.
Speaker 2: Quite embarrassing, really, I love it. So Aaron, who is
Speaker 2: Anita Morn.
Speaker 1: So I was actually telling him I don't actually know her.
Speaker 1: I think she knows my brother that lives in western Kansas.
Speaker 2: So here's here's what we got on April seventeenth to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, which means it took Alex a whole
Speaker 2: year to get you here, so nice job. Way to
Speaker 2: work on it quickly. Good job, Alex.
Speaker 3: The first note was just singing our praises you Google.
Speaker 2: Oh read that first though, because it's good. Oh okay.
Speaker 2: March twenty seven, twenty twenty five, see you jumped on it.
Speaker 2: Nice job out. Anita Maran is a listener and she
Speaker 2: just said thanks to the micro podcast for introducing us.
Speaker 2: I was on Mike's podcast or Mike was online. We
Speaker 2: were on both, but I don't know what she listened to.
Speaker 2: And she said, I've become addicted to your podcast. So Anita,
Speaker 2: thank you for your addiction. I hope it's healthy. Then
Speaker 2: on March twenty seventh, Anita said, I am attaching a
Speaker 2: video to this message about a woman who has started
Speaker 2: the Heritage Home in a small town here in Kansas.
Speaker 2: I really don't know her, but her brother works for us,
Speaker 2: and we all know about the family and the Heritage Home.
Speaker 2: Her family is big boy, that's an understatement. We'll get
Speaker 2: to that in a minute. And they have a beautiful
Speaker 2: life story, one worth listening to please enjoy. And we
Speaker 2: watched that video and we said, yep, we got to
Speaker 2: get air into Memphis. So that's for our listeners to
Speaker 2: kind of introduce how we know you. I think Germaine
Speaker 2: to the story is certainly how you grew up. Why
Speaker 2: don't you take us to that chaos. It may not
Speaker 2: have been chaos, but when I read about it, I
Speaker 2: think it's chaos because that many people in one household
Speaker 2: is insanity to me.
Speaker 3: For me, it was just normal. I grew up in
Speaker 3: the family.
Speaker 1: I was number twelve of eighteen, so I mean that's
Speaker 1: just that was life for me.
Speaker 3: I didn't know any different.
Speaker 2: No twins, same two parents.
Speaker 3: Same two parents. That's right.
Speaker 1: My mom wanted a dozen babies, and my dad just
Speaker 1: really liked my mom and said, okay, whatever.
Speaker 3: You want, honey.
Speaker 2: Eight teens, eighteen kids, all right. When I read that
Speaker 2: and then watched the video of you and thought of it,
Speaker 2: how many bedrooms were in your home?
Speaker 1: So we had well, the boys had like what we
Speaker 1: called a dormitory in the basement, so I mean literally
Speaker 1: it was a big, huge, open room that they just
Speaker 1: had beds, and that was pretty much.
Speaker 3: If you were a senior in high school, you got
Speaker 3: your own room in the basement.
Speaker 1: So there was that when you were a senior and
Speaker 1: got your own room, and then the girls. We had
Speaker 1: three rooms upstairs that we shared, and then we had
Speaker 1: a study that we've turned into a room.
Speaker 3: There was a bed and living room.
Speaker 2: You know, what did your father and mother do for Well,
Speaker 2: your mother had to have just raised children. There's no
Speaker 2: way to work outside the home with eighteen kids as there.
Speaker 1: She pretty much did until she did start working when
Speaker 1: my youngest brother, well actually my second youngest brother was born,
Speaker 1: she started working. But my dad was a postmaster and
Speaker 1: then my mom.
Speaker 2: I mean a good living, sure, but eight how do
Speaker 2: you feed that many people?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They my dad went to the store every single day
Speaker 1: for bread and milk. He would stop at the store
Speaker 1: after work, that is true. Yeah, and there were times
Speaker 1: you knew, you know that we were waiting for a
Speaker 1: paycheck because we might have ham and beans for four days.
Speaker 3: But I mean, for the most part, they just did
Speaker 3: whatever they had to do. My mom also did work.
Speaker 3: She would do like.
Speaker 1: Evenings and nights, you know what I mean, to kind
Speaker 1: of supplement or she that's how she paid for Christmas.
Speaker 2: And I think on that web, I think on that
Speaker 2: video there were pictures of you as a kid with
Speaker 2: some of your siblings that had to have been I
Speaker 2: mean you say, for you, it was what you knew,
Speaker 2: so it was normal, but you had to have known.
Speaker 2: Nobody else was one of eighteen. But it looked like
Speaker 2: you guys were thickest thieves and just had a cool
Speaker 2: life together.
Speaker 1: We absolutely, I mean we were very close. We fought
Speaker 1: like normal siblings. I mean I had my moments that
Speaker 1: like my sister that was four years younger than me,
Speaker 1: I hated her, you know when I was in high
Speaker 1: school and she was middle school. I mean we had
Speaker 1: all those but for the most part, we were very
Speaker 1: close and your best friends were your siblings. And it's
Speaker 1: still kind of that way. There was always someone to
Speaker 1: play with, always someone to do something with.
Speaker 2: You know, what was the spread? What's the youngest of
Speaker 2: the oldest, Like when the youngest was one? How old
Speaker 2: was the oldest?
Speaker 1: Let's see, I think Jimmy's the oldest, and he would
Speaker 1: have been, well, he's fifty fifty six, fifty seven, don't
Speaker 1: quote me, and Tigan's.
Speaker 2: Thirty twenty yeah, twenty six years.
Speaker 1: She had one every year until me and then stir breastfeeding.
Speaker 1: Then it's every other year that intil the last two
Speaker 1: are a little spread.
Speaker 2: Apart, but that is on the Anybody ever suggest your
Speaker 2: mom and dad to get.
Speaker 3: A hobby, well that was usually the joke growing up.
Speaker 3: That was usually what everybody said to me, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know, I my mom was Catholic, my dad converted,
Speaker 1: so you know, they had their beliefs that way. But
Speaker 1: my mom always wanted a dozen kids. And like I said,
Speaker 1: my mom pretty much got what she wanted. And my
Speaker 1: dad just said, okay.
Speaker 2: Did she drive a school bus? I mean, how in
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 1: We had around stretched blue van and literally, I mean
Speaker 1: it was it was a stretch van.
Speaker 3: We and we'd just pile out. We the high schooler
Speaker 3: would drop, you know, make all the stops at the schools.
Speaker 2: And I bet, I bet pileout. I just died when
Speaker 2: they saw y'all comment.
Speaker 3: Yep. When we traveled, we would sleep on the floorboards.
Speaker 2: That's old school.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we didn't have like I was fine.
Speaker 1: My mom would hold one up front and be several
Speaker 1: of us laying on the floorboards and.
Speaker 2: The Yeah, it's just it seems to me growing up
Speaker 2: like that though, as tight and piled down on top
Speaker 2: of each other. You have to be with all the
Speaker 2: love and everything else that has to be inherent in
Speaker 2: a home like that. You do have to develop a
Speaker 2: sense of understanding of the people next to you, some
Speaker 2: empathy and that kind of thing. I mean, am I
Speaker 2: grasping there or do you think that's right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I absolutely think that's right. I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: you learn is you can't be selfish. Nothing is really
Speaker 1: ever just about you. So you kind of learn at
Speaker 1: a very young age to give to others, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, You share everything, and if you don't, then.
Speaker 3: There's seventeen others that don't like you.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know there was a time where you
Speaker 1: try to hoard, like cookies or things like that. But
Speaker 1: I mean we from a very young age you shared
Speaker 1: everything you had. You didn't get everything you wanted. We
Speaker 1: passed on things. That's just what we learned, and I
Speaker 1: think we all have those qualities as adults because of that.
Speaker 2: I think that's so healthy.
Speaker 3: It absolutely is.
Speaker 1: As a mom, I only have three children, so trying
Speaker 1: to teach those lessons to your kids when maybe they
Speaker 1: could have what they want.
Speaker 3: But we just learned it naturally. We didn't get everything
Speaker 3: we wanted.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a time I felt very jaded
Speaker 1: because of that, you know, like during your selfish year
Speaker 1: is probably middle school, high school. But then now I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like I see how much that made
Speaker 1: me into the person I am.
Speaker 2: Now I love that. So we have four and four
Speaker 2: years and I've always thought that was chaos until I
Speaker 2: heard your story, and now I know we're just pikers.
Speaker 2: But one of my things was even when my business
Speaker 2: started doing well, and certainly I wouldn't describe what we
Speaker 2: became as rich, but we started making a nice living
Speaker 2: and we bought a bigger house with a couple of acres. Well,
Speaker 2: that's a lot of grass, and it was all landscape.
Speaker 2: So it's a lot of grass, it's a lot of mold,
Speaker 2: it's a lot of trimming, it's you know, Lisa Love's ivys.
Speaker 2: We had an ivy all over the place, which is
Speaker 2: the biggest nightmare in the world because you have to
Speaker 2: cut it every week. A lot of edging. I had
Speaker 2: four able bodied human beings that can run along more
Speaker 2: and a weed eater and clipper and bend over and
Speaker 2: put crapping bags. And Sunday after church was yard day. Period.
Speaker 2: That was it because Saturday kids are playing sports and
Speaker 2: all that, and listen, after running a business coaching football team,
Speaker 2: I assure you there were some sundays after church I
Speaker 2: would have love to have just sat down and had
Speaker 2: a beer and watched football or something, but that wasn't
Speaker 2: the deal. And I remember when Molly, who is my
Speaker 2: second child, was eleven or twelve that age, she comes
Speaker 2: around a corner driving a hefty dragging a hefty bag
Speaker 2: full of grass clippings, and she is sweating and her
Speaker 2: face is red and her lips are pierced, and she
Speaker 2: is angry as hell, and she looks at me in
Speaker 2: this nice neighborhood that I've moved my family in, it says,
Speaker 2: why can't we just have a ard man like normal people?
Speaker 2: And I said, honey, the very question is why we
Speaker 2: don't have a yard man. Now today, my grown children,
Speaker 2: who are thirty twenty nine to twenty eight twenty seven,
Speaker 2: all tell me they will never have a yard man.
Speaker 2: The children will not have phones until they're sixteen, they
Speaker 2: will not have video games, and they will go outside
Speaker 2: and skin their knees and bust their lip and sweat
Speaker 2: and have those problems. Because as bad as they hatedly
Speaker 2: send me at those days at that age. They now
Speaker 2: know that that was the very best way for them
Speaker 2: to grow up. They all plan on raising their children
Speaker 2: the same way. How do you raise yours?
Speaker 3: You know, I just put family first.
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of how I grew up, and
Speaker 1: I think it was kind of natural, like we always
Speaker 1: did things together as a family, and my kids kind
Speaker 1: of have grown up that way, whether it's their cousins
Speaker 1: or their And I think, yeah, work ethic is a huge,
Speaker 1: huge thing, like, you know, we'll get into the business,
Speaker 1: but my kids literally helped us do everything in that
Speaker 1: to get it going.
Speaker 3: They will kind of tease the first year we bought it,
Speaker 3: their phrase was, I can't my mom bought a nursing home. Can't.
Speaker 3: We can't go on naication, We can't this, We can't that,
Speaker 3: you know. But what they're learning from that experience is
Speaker 3: far greater than.
Speaker 2: One of the dues and don'ts of an interview is
Speaker 2: never ask a question you don't know the answer to,
Speaker 2: because you might get thrown off guard. I did not
Speaker 2: know the answer to the question that I asked you
Speaker 2: just now, but I absolutely suspected it. Given the way
Speaker 2: you grow up, what you're doing now, so it's not surprising,
Speaker 2: but I think it's beautiful. And now a few messages
Speaker 2: from our general sponsors. But first, our next live interview
Speaker 2: in Memphis will be on June twelfth with Father Mark Hannah.
Speaker 2: Father Mark and a team of four other civilians saved
Speaker 2: over fifty lives on nine to eleven and the rest
Speaker 2: of his team died while trying to save more people.
Speaker 2: After nine to eleven, Mark became a Coptic priest and
Speaker 2: hence the father title. It's part of our lunch and
Speaker 2: listen series that we've been doing at Crosstown Concourses Myphis
Speaker 2: Listening Lab and you can learn more and RSVP at
Speaker 2: Fathermark dot Eventwright dot com. We hope to see you there.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back. So congratulations on your family. So
Speaker 2: what'd you do? You left the family of eighteen and
Speaker 2: you go get You wanted to be in something and
Speaker 2: you did something else. Take me through that stage of life.
Speaker 1: And sure all that my youngest brother has down syndrome.
Speaker 1: So I was very intrigued in special education. The last one,
Speaker 1: the last one, the very last one, which was he
Speaker 1: had some health condition also, and so the doctor said
Speaker 1: no more, surely, no more kids than you can't, which
Speaker 1: is why she probably stopped. But otherwise, so he I
Speaker 1: always kind of had a passion for that, and so
Speaker 1: in high school I kind of shadowed in a special
Speaker 1: ed classroom and did that and loved it, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I thought. I wanted to do special education.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, kind of go be a teacher. I was
Speaker 1: supposed to startcase State and live with my sister, which
Speaker 1: maybe would have not been a great thing because we
Speaker 1: got into some trouble together, but nonetheless I found it.
Speaker 1: I was pregnant a couple of weeks before I was
Speaker 1: supposed to startcase Dates, so I kind of changed trajectories.
Speaker 1: And then when I had my daughter, I remember kind
Speaker 1: of being like, well, I have my daughter, and I
Speaker 1: watched my sister have a kid, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to be that's what I want to do.
Speaker 3: I want to be a nurse.
Speaker 1: And so I kind of changed what I what my
Speaker 1: plan was and decided I want to be a nurse,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be an OB nurse. And I've
Speaker 1: never been an OB nurse, but.
Speaker 2: That's you know, and you married your sweetheart, yeah, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: So my husband and I started dating when we were
Speaker 1: junior and senior who he happened to be my brother's
Speaker 1: best friend.
Speaker 3: And not going did your brother take that? He went
Speaker 3: running and he didn't speak to us for about them month.
Speaker 2: Really is that right? Then?
Speaker 1: He's our you know, my daughter's godfather, and he was
Speaker 1: my husband's best man.
Speaker 3: But he didn't he didn't take it very well at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so even in a family of eighteen, big
Speaker 2: brothers are still being big brother.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, absolutely, and he was pretty protective anyway.
Speaker 3: So but yeah, so then.
Speaker 2: Where did your husband live? By the way, it was pretty.
Speaker 3: Close across the street from us.
Speaker 2: Well that made it too convenient.
Speaker 3: It was a little too convenient.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I mean, when there's eighteen people in
Speaker 2: this house and only a couple over here, there's a
Speaker 2: pretty good place to go hang out.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Actually our first kiss. All of my siblings were hiding.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say all of them, not all of them.
Speaker 1: There was a handful of my little sisters.
Speaker 3: They'll tell the story. They were sitting kind of behind
Speaker 3: the bushes, like.
Speaker 2: There's no way all of your siblings said behind a bush,
Speaker 2: there's bush big enough. There's no big enough bush. Todd seventeen,
Speaker 2: So this is high school neighborhood sweetheart. Yep.
Speaker 1: So we got married then a year our daughter was
Speaker 1: thirteen months old when we got married.
Speaker 2: Got it.
Speaker 1: He he got a job for West Star. It's kind
Speaker 1: of an energy He worked at a power plant. And
Speaker 1: that kind of allowed me.
Speaker 3: To go to school.
Speaker 2: And you became a nurse.
Speaker 3: I became a nurse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've I kind of started, you know, along
Speaker 1: the track of med surge, which they kind of recommend,
Speaker 1: you know, get your experience.
Speaker 3: I've done a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: Probably the most paralleled to what drew me to Obi
Speaker 1: was like, I was a hospice nurse for four years
Speaker 1: and I loved that. I was very passionate about it,
Speaker 1: which I kind of bring into what I do now.
Speaker 1: You know, hospice is the idea is six months or
Speaker 1: less to live. But you know, for me working with elderly,
Speaker 1: you know, you might get a year or two. You know,
Speaker 1: you get to spend yes, you get to spend their
Speaker 1: final days typically with them and hopefully make them meaningful,
Speaker 1: not just six months.
Speaker 2: All right, So now let's let the listeners in on this.
Speaker 2: You are the founder of Heritage Home, which is something
Speaker 2: I've never read before, and I'm gonna get there. Just
Speaker 2: you sit over in hush, gosh, just sit there and
Speaker 2: push buttons and make the sound right. All right. You're
Speaker 2: the founder of Heritage Home and Intergenerational Senior Living Facility
Speaker 2: and Childcare Center and Alma, Kansas. So we're gonna say that, okay,
Speaker 2: and just let that marinate. I'm gonna say it again,
Speaker 2: Intergenerational Senior Living Facility and Childcare Center in Alma, Kansas.
Speaker 2: Now we'll just let that marinate. What yeahoo, take us.
Speaker 1: So I after hospice, I started kind of working in
Speaker 1: senior care, you know, so nursing, your traditional nursing homes.
Speaker 3: I worked in several of those, so you.
Speaker 2: Were the nurse in the home, in the nursing home.
Speaker 3: In the nursing home.
Speaker 1: So I kind of started long term care working in
Speaker 1: that field and really fell in love with that.
Speaker 2: Is that like assisted living or take me help me,
Speaker 2: because I've I don't know. There's there's like assisted living,
Speaker 2: then there's full health, there's like levels of senior living,
Speaker 2: right sure, yeah, absolutely, so explain those.
Speaker 1: So I worked in skilled nursing facility, which is I
Speaker 1: mean the highest level of a nursing home, your traditional
Speaker 1: nursing home what we probably all picture when you talk
Speaker 1: about a nursing home.
Speaker 3: I also worked in one that was very similar to
Speaker 3: assisted living.
Speaker 1: So I was the nursing supervisor at that one, and
Speaker 1: I did that during COVID, and of course nursing homes
Speaker 1: kind of traditionally have a depressing feel. I grew up
Speaker 1: being scared of nursing homes. My grandma was, well, my
Speaker 1: great grandma was in one, and it was like smelly and.
Speaker 3: Scary, and everybody I just I just had like this.
Speaker 1: Stick anybody, No, No, it's the smell, it's all the things.
Speaker 1: And so I kind of which is interesting because then
Speaker 1: I ended up working in one. But during COVID, it
Speaker 1: was just so depressing, and you know, as a team,
Speaker 1: you're doing everything you can to kind of boost them
Speaker 1: around in the facility. They're lonely, they're isolated, they're not
Speaker 1: seeing their family, and so you know, we're spending all
Speaker 1: this money, all this resources, trying to rack our brains
Speaker 1: to find things to make them happy. And we had
Speaker 1: a preschool come do an East Ray hunt, which there's
Speaker 1: no contact. I mean, that was when you know they
Speaker 1: could watch from the window.
Speaker 3: You know, we can't tell.
Speaker 1: No. It was literally we were inside watching out the
Speaker 1: window and these kids were just doing an East Ray
Speaker 1: hunt and the joy like that brought to them.
Speaker 3: I thought, that's kind of the ticket, Like, that's what
Speaker 3: we need to do. It's kids like you know that
Speaker 3: bring them joy.
Speaker 1: And so then I kind of the idea kind of
Speaker 1: started to evolve. And originally it was going to be
Speaker 1: I was going to do a playground at my nursing home.
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm going to do my own and
Speaker 3: I'm going to do this, and then it kind.
Speaker 1: Of evolved into a childcare there where you can actually
Speaker 1: build relationships, not just watch kids play or actually interacting.
Speaker 2: And okay, let's let's take a quick diversion, because I
Speaker 2: think it's worth talking about one. I talked to a
Speaker 2: guy today three hours before meeting you, who said he
Speaker 2: was concerned about his grandmother dying of loneliness, far before
Speaker 2: she died of anything that was a physical element that
Speaker 2: would actually at take her life. He said, she is
Speaker 2: just sad. How real is that in the nursing home world?
Speaker 2: Is that is that a one off? Or is that
Speaker 2: more times than not talk about that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I would say that's definitely I mean depression
Speaker 1: is like nursing homes.
Speaker 3: I mean that is probably the memory. Yet absolutely I.
Speaker 1: Think some of it is just for them, maybe this
Speaker 1: is the last like this is all you know, I
Speaker 1: move here and this is it. A lot of it is,
Speaker 1: you know, you're taking away everything they love and new
Speaker 1: their home there. You know, a lot of times you're
Speaker 1: selling their home. There's a lot of factors that play
Speaker 1: into that. But in general, it is very depressing for
Speaker 1: them to be in a nursing home and people are
Speaker 1: very lonely. Not everybody has people that visit them unfortunately,
Speaker 1: or you know, and so you know, I have the
Speaker 1: intergenerational aspect, but also the care side of things, like
Speaker 1: really making it a family like. So the idea is
Speaker 1: also my staff are very close to these elderly, like
Speaker 1: their family, like their grandkids. You know. It's like a close,
Speaker 1: small knit community to where they love them, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's like a actually not just their caregiver.
Speaker 3: I guess I've.
Speaker 2: Heard horror stories often about kind of state run type
Speaker 2: institutions that the level of care is substandard, but even
Speaker 2: worse than that that there is often abuse in elderly
Speaker 2: care facilities that I'm not certainly talking about your yeah
Speaker 2: and abuse oftentimes looks like just leaving someone to kind
Speaker 2: of rot for an extended period of time, all the
Speaker 2: way up to not wanting to hear anybody gripe or
Speaker 2: want something. And how real is that in elderly care
Speaker 2: around the country.
Speaker 1: I would say it's it's very real. I've never, you know,
Speaker 1: been a part of that or worked at a facility
Speaker 1: that that's happened or as far as I know, but
Speaker 1: I do think that is definitely. I mean, you're talking
Speaker 1: about people that you're hiring an entry level position and
Speaker 1: paying them not very good money to do a very
Speaker 1: very hard job. So to find good people to do that, trustworthy,
Speaker 1: all of those things.
Speaker 3: It's hard.
Speaker 2: My brother in law, Ben is a person with special needs.
Speaker 2: He has been a number of different facilities, and it
Speaker 2: dawned on me some years ago when you're paying a
Speaker 2: twenty one year old not very well trained that they
Speaker 2: title versus tech or whatever, which actually requires almost no education,
Speaker 2: and you're paying them thirteen bucks an hour to deal
Speaker 2: with a very very challenging human being in a very
Speaker 2: very challenging environment. It's fraught with.
Speaker 1: Opportunity, absolutely, I mean, it takes a very very special
Speaker 1: person to do that and do it well, especially for
Speaker 1: that money. Like my biggest thing I say in every
Speaker 1: interview is you can't be doing this for the money.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to have a greater purpose to
Speaker 1: do this work or a sign of work.
Speaker 2: You know, we'll be right back. So the whole point
Speaker 2: I'm asking these questions is this, I'm fifty six. You
Speaker 2: know a lot of people have heard my story. But
Speaker 2: my dad left them when I was young, and I
Speaker 2: didn't grow up with a whole lot, and I had
Speaker 2: a fair amount of dysfunction in my house. I worked hard.
Speaker 2: I threw a paper route, I washed cars man, I
Speaker 2: hustled up money anywhere I could to have what some
Speaker 2: other kids just walked in the house their parents came.
Speaker 2: But that's cool too, because that defines who I am.
Speaker 2: I got married to a beautiful woman. I've had three
Speaker 2: gorgeous children. I have taught school and coach football for
Speaker 2: a living, graduated from that because these four kids were
Speaker 2: too expensive on that kind of income, and then started
Speaker 2: to business and now I employe one hundred and thirty people,
Speaker 2: and then this podcast and TV shows and movies, and
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a failed human being. Like all of
Speaker 2: us are. But I have worked hard to live a
Speaker 2: decent life, just like you have, just like Alex has,
Speaker 2: just like Cassius. Alex is raising four kids. Cassius has
Speaker 2: this beautiful daughter. Everybody listening to us is doing the
Speaker 2: best they can. And you put in that time, and
Speaker 2: you put in that effort, and despite your failings, every
Speaker 2: day you do, really do try to be a decent
Speaker 2: human being, an exact, some measure of good change in
Speaker 2: your community. And then maybe you lose your spouse and
Speaker 2: you're in your seventies early eighties, and you've lost your
Speaker 2: life partner, and you've paid your taxes, you've been a
Speaker 2: good community citizen, you've done all of the things you're
Speaker 2: supposed to do, and you find yourself in basically a
Speaker 2: dorm room. You also don't like the smell, surrounded by
Speaker 2: people that you don't know, that aren't your family, hoping
Speaker 2: for maybe an hour a week of interaction with somebody
Speaker 2: who has your DNA, and your highlight of your day
Speaker 2: is probably some really average banana pudding at five thirty.
Speaker 2: I mean to me, that's the reality of a lot
Speaker 2: of people in our country right now. The very people
Speaker 2: you've worked for and served. Is that a fair assessment.
Speaker 3: I think that's a fair assessment.
Speaker 1: That's also kind of what I feel compelled to do
Speaker 1: is to make that better for them. You can still
Speaker 1: have some enjoyment, you can still do some things, you
Speaker 1: can still it doesn't have.
Speaker 3: To be a sad thing. It can be life giving
Speaker 3: and you know all.
Speaker 2: Of those, which is why you're here because what you're
Speaker 2: doing is incredibly special. But absent you sure, I think?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, that's the reality for a lot of people who
Speaker 2: have given a ton to our society during their lives,
Speaker 2: and to me, that is just so desperately wrong. So
Speaker 2: when you hear the depression, that clinical depression is a
Speaker 2: big deal in nursing care facilities, well, if you actually
Speaker 2: really take stock of it and put yourself in that position,
Speaker 2: I'm fifty six. I don't want to be there in
Speaker 2: twenty years at seventy six. But the truth is there
Speaker 2: are thousands of people in our country that at that
Speaker 2: very age, twenty years from where I'm sitting right now,
Speaker 2: are in that very situation and they're depressed because they've
Speaker 2: led their lives properly and the golden years are not
Speaker 2: supposed to be that. But for some they are. We
Speaker 2: do a shop talk on Fridays, and I remember it
Speaker 2: wasn't long ago. I don't know which remember it was.
Speaker 2: I'm just popped in my head. But one of our
Speaker 2: listeners called in and challenged us to think about just
Speaker 2: going to a nursing home once or twice a week
Speaker 2: and beating or hanging out, just keeping somebody company, and
Speaker 2: how fulfilling it is. But more importantly, if you'll shut
Speaker 2: up and listen, let you might learn from those many, many,
Speaker 2: many years of experience and knowledge and wisdom that these
Speaker 2: people carry from having lived all their life. Just because
Speaker 2: they're old doesn't mean there were any less effective at
Speaker 2: life than any of us listening right now, and they
Speaker 2: have still a lot to offer.
Speaker 1: And I think all of those things you were saying,
Speaker 1: you know that you're then you throw in that you're
Speaker 1: very vulnerable because you have to rely on someone else
Speaker 1: to take care of you. You can't do things for yourself,
Speaker 1: and your health may be failing. You know, all of
Speaker 1: those things so frustrating. So you're not only in this facility,
Speaker 1: in this small room, and all the things you kind
Speaker 1: of mentioned, but then your health is failing or you
Speaker 1: can no longer do things for yourself, or maybe nobody
Speaker 1: can understand you because you have Parkinson's.
Speaker 3: And you slur your words, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: and so.
Speaker 1: But you are exactly right, Parkinson's is not the person,
Speaker 1: and so kind of taking the disease out, yes, this
Speaker 1: person has way more to offer than just that, you know,
Speaker 1: to teach you if you sit and listen, just kind
Speaker 1: of what we do with the kids their way.
Speaker 3: They had a full life they you know, and oftentimes.
Speaker 1: The kids are very surprised, you know, they were a
Speaker 1: basketball player, they were a football coach, because they're in
Speaker 1: a wheelchair and maybe they can't do anything right now
Speaker 1: and maybe they're even slumped over and you can't barely
Speaker 1: understand them. But they have a life story, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's not over and they can still share it.
Speaker 2: I also have a soul in a mind, and so that.
Speaker 1: For really, yeah, and to be able to share that
Speaker 1: and relive that. That's kind of part of the idea too,
Speaker 1: because that brings them joy, you know. That's that's who
Speaker 1: they want people to remember them as.
Speaker 2: So I don't know, you're driving around and old folks
Speaker 2: home shuts down, you think I want that what happened.
Speaker 3: No, that is not so I kind of I I
Speaker 3: would kind of go home.
Speaker 1: I worked, you know, in a few different places, and
Speaker 1: they all had wonderful qualities, but it just wasn't the
Speaker 1: essence of exactly the care I wanted to give.
Speaker 3: And a lot of times in the corporate.
Speaker 1: World you can't make changes because you know, they got
Speaker 1: to go through this and this and this and this,
Speaker 1: and so I got very frustrated by that process. Even
Speaker 1: as a supervisor, you couldn't make those changes that I
Speaker 1: felt like needed to happen.
Speaker 3: So I'd go home and my husband kept saying, you're
Speaker 3: just going to do it yourself.
Speaker 2: Husband, Joe, Joe. So you go home and say, yo, Joe,
Speaker 2: I ain't down with this. I got a better idea.
Speaker 3: Well probably about five thousand.
Speaker 1: Times, and then maybe I whittled him after it took
Speaker 1: a minute to say. First he'd say, you got to
Speaker 1: do it yourself. You gotta do it yourself, and we did.
Speaker 2: He did say that, yes, well, to his credit, good
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so, And I was like, no, I couldn't. Like,
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't think I can do that.
Speaker 3: But I'm a normal person.
Speaker 2: I plus, I mean, he owes you. He did mess
Speaker 2: around with his best friend's sister. He owed you one, right,
Speaker 2: that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: He owes me a lot.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, No, he was probably the one that encouraged me more.
Speaker 1: You know, I I kept I'm just a normal person.
Speaker 3: You know, I can't run a business. I don't know
Speaker 3: the first thing about that.
Speaker 2: You're a nurse with an idea, yeah, and a husband
Speaker 2: and three children.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And we don't come for money. We don't have.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well that's not even if even.
Speaker 2: Everywhere, even if your father left a will, it was
Speaker 2: split eighteen ways. There ain't much left.
Speaker 3: Well, true story, that is very true.
Speaker 2: Everybody gets to go to Applebee's. Yes, that's about it.
Speaker 1: We got to go to McDonald's if we got a's
Speaker 1: and we got to go. So if you got straight
Speaker 1: a's at semester and then on your birthday, you got
Speaker 1: to go to eat.
Speaker 2: I got to go. I'm so I got to go
Speaker 2: to Wendy's or straight ice on a report card. That's true.
Speaker 2: I always raised the same way.
Speaker 3: It was a big deal.
Speaker 2: It was a huge deal.
Speaker 3: And now my kids are like, we don't want to
Speaker 3: eat out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, losers, Yeah, spoiled brass. I raised four of
Speaker 2: them too. It's terrible.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Anyway, so during you know, we kind of started looking
Speaker 1: to build one, but again we're.
Speaker 2: Not that's expensive, very expensive.
Speaker 1: And then COVID you know, everything prices and we went
Speaker 1: to the bank a few times and it was like,
Speaker 1: we're never going to be able to do this. I
Speaker 1: am very faith driven, did a lot of praying. I
Speaker 1: had this journal that I would literally, I mean, I
Speaker 1: just kind of kept ideas to kind of keep me inspired.
Speaker 3: So I had this and I would write.
Speaker 1: Down things each night and be texting my sisters, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm going to name it, and you
Speaker 1: know whatever, to kind of keep inspired.
Speaker 3: So this nursing home came up for sale.
Speaker 1: I had a good girlfriend that lives in Alma, and
Speaker 1: she knew my dream and she said, you need to
Speaker 1: go look at it. The nursing homes closing and I said,
Speaker 1: that's not what I'm that's not what i'm doing, that's
Speaker 1: not what i'm thinking.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, as far as almost it's like.
Speaker 3: Thirteen miles from where I live in your neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it was. It's a very small town,
Speaker 1: so it was very devastating. It was a corporate facility
Speaker 1: that was closing. But I was kind of resistant because
Speaker 1: that wasn't my idea. I was going to build this,
Speaker 1: you know, exactly what I wanted, and da da da.
Speaker 1: But we went and my husband pretty much said, if
Speaker 1: you're going to do it, I think this is your shot.
Speaker 1: You know, financially, it was really the only opportunity. It's
Speaker 1: like a twenty six thousand square feet you had to
Speaker 1: it had urinals on the floor, and it smelled like
Speaker 1: a nursing home and it was very, very run down.
Speaker 3: But he's like, I think we could do it. This
Speaker 3: setup was kind of how we we it would work.
Speaker 2: And so how are you going to buy this thing?
Speaker 1: My father and mother in law graciously helped us, and
Speaker 1: then we my husband and I pretty much put everything
Speaker 1: out and your kids scrubbing. Yeah, so they get it
Speaker 1: inher a.
Speaker 2: Red face and say, mom, why can't we get a
Speaker 2: contractor like normal people all the day?
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty much every day.
Speaker 2: Too bad.
Speaker 3: I think they still are know we have enough to
Speaker 3: hire somebody for that yet.
Speaker 2: And that concludes part one of my conversation with Aaron Steele,
Speaker 2: and you do not want to miss part two. That's
Speaker 2: now we'll be able to listen to together. Guys, we
Speaker 2: can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll
Speaker 2: see you in Part two.