Celebrating 24 Amazing Years at Choice in Aging!

Forgive my indulgence, but I wanted to take a few minutes of your life and share 24 years of mine. 24 years ago today, I started my job as Program Director of Mt. Diablo Center, and my life was forever changed in the most precious way. I found my way back to my elders — my grandparents — my people.

Some folks know my story, though I am not sure many do. When I was 17 years old, I had the incredible fortune of being hired as a server at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home, where I gained 82 grandparents. They lived in the independent housing in this sprawling gorgeous continuing care and hospital community. They had the best of the best: cloth napkins, steak of the day, fish of the day, salad bar with kale garnish (those were the days, when we didn’t have to eat kale, just decorate with it!), three main entrees, or made-to-order meals. It was an idyllic setting with all of the amenities… for those living in the independent housing…

One night, we ran out of mashed potatoes, and I was sent to the hospital kitchen to get another half pan. I made the detour to go through the skilled nursing wing, which I had never done before. In the span of about five seconds, my life forever changed. I opened the door to a stench I did not know — of stale urine — and a woman in a wheelchair screaming while three women in scrubs played cards not 15 feet away, completely unphased — like that woman in severe distress did not exist. This is an impression that will never leave me. Our elders, when becoming dependent, also become invisible and discardable.

I got the potatoes, finished my shift, and eventually went on to college at UC Irvine. On weekends, I came home to work at the Country House dining room so I could stay connected to my 82 grandparents.

That indulgence ended when I moved to Hungary to study abroad, and life took me in all kinds of different directions. I ended up in Northern California working in financial services when 9/11 happened. It leveled me. Watching people jumping out of the tower was haunting me in ways I never knew possible, and I kept putting myself in their shoes. After days of this experience, I took it to the next step and asked myself, If that was me, and my life was flashing before my eyes, would I like me… and where I had come… and what I was doing with this life that is so fragile? And my answer was: I like me, I think I am a good human, but I am not doing what I need to be doing. I need to be working with my grandparents again. And when I was able to come out of the dark cloud, I immediately went in search of an opportunity to have grandparents again!

I found the Mt. Diablo Center (MDC) Program Director job listed on Craigslist — mind you these were not the days of Google, and Encyclopedia Britannica didn’t have a definition for Adult Day Health Care. I mean, who on earth knows what that is? So I went to this job interview for a program I did not know, but it was working with seniors, and that is what I wanted. That fateful day in April of 2002, I arrived at 490 Golf Club Road and was greeted by Linda Hughes, the Executive Director of MDC. She asked me if I knew what Adult Day Health Care was. I said no. She said it is a program with two goals: to provide respite for caregivers and to prevent the institutionalization of our elders. At that moment, those five seconds of the one experience I had with skilled nursing flooded me, and I said to her in no uncertain terms, “You are going to hire me.”

And she did. And I am sure there were many times she questioned her decision, though I think at this point she is probably resting easier about it. In fact, my degree did not qualify me to be in that position, but given my seven years of experience working with the population, she was able to submit a flexibility request to the CA Department of Public Health and get it approved.

That was 24 years ago today. I was single. I had no children. I had dark hair. Today, I am married, raised three children into adulthood, have a full head of silver hair, and wake up every morning knowing my heart is in the same place I go each day to work.

We grew MDC; we added transportation; we developed our advocacy muscle; we added complex case management; we added transitions out of skilled nursing facilities; we added an intergenerational preschool; we expanded to three more counties; we added mental health case management and clinical care; and today, we are embarking on an Aging in Place Campus that will serve as a replicable model to finally break the institutionally biased poverty pipeline that is our current de facto long-term care system.

None of the above would be possible without YOU! Without our supporters who show up to volunteer on our Board, our Advisory Board, fundraising planning committees, in programs and so much more. YOU, who write checks, show up at events, talk to others about our work — YOU make Choice in Aging possible. You allow us to continue the work because we know others believe as we do, that EVERYONE should have the opportunity to learn, grow, and age independently with dignity in community.

Thank you for making my soul work a daily dream!