If we had been older and wiser, we probably would’t have had the courage to go for it. With no money down, no reserve capital, we signed three notes to make Cedar Lake ours. With a capacity for 30 residents and occupancy of around 20, it had never shown a profit. Suddenly it had to support itself and our young family as well. Somehow it did.

If we had been older and wiser, we might not have done it, but I’am so glad we did. We put our whole lives into it, and the people who lived here and worked here became our family. They still are. Many of the first staff members stayed with us till they retired.

One of those first staff members, Frankie McCreary, age 99, is a resident in the nursing home. Charlene Owen, first as a nurse, then as administrator, retired just last year. Charlene was such a vital part of the success of Cedar Lake, she deserves her own story.
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I remember nearly every one of those first residents. They became like family to us. Lulu Peters, Jimmy Simmons, and Rufus Simmons, three siblings were all residents at the same time. Pete, as we called her, sat in the day room, dipping her snuff, chewing her twig “toothbrush,” watching everything that went on, and freely delivering her opinion on it. She used to tell me she was going to sew a ruffle on the bottom of my skirt to make it a decent length. Tom Warren was one of my favorites—a round little man with a wonderful twinkle in his eye, and a wry sense of humor gene that it has passed down intact to his granddaughter, Fran Estes, who is the volunteer coordinator for Hospice of Cedar Lake, and to his great granddaughter, Karen Abbe, Fran’s niece, who is the administrator of Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice. Just to show you how much we are a family of families here, Karen, who is largely responsible for the success of our home health agency, is the daughter-in-law of Charlene, who has been so important to the nursing home.



I could go on… Lucille Schrader, bed bound, profoundly crippled with arthritis , sharp as a tack, still in charge of her life, and sometimes pretty much in charge of the nursing home; Mrs. Bennie Evans, widow of beloved Dr. Evans, who also did her share of directing us, with a whispered, “Don’t let on, honey.”
The nursing home did well, and filled up. A couple of years, though I’d never done anything much except raise kids, I did the monumental paperwork it took to get a Small Business Administration loan, in order to add a new 15 bed wing. (I’am sitting in that “new” wing as I write this. More about that later.) Another year or so later, we did it again. We were up to 60 beds then. A couple of years after that, I wrote this article for the paper.

In 1983 the home was full again, but instead of adding more beds, this time we expanded by opening our own home health agency. A few years later we added the hospice program. We are the only nursing home in the area that has its own home health and hospice. This is especially helpful to people to come to the nursing home for rehab. They know we’ll all get them home as soon as possible, and they can continue to be seen by Cedar Lake people, who already know their case, and who will continue with the exact same treatment plan.

I think it was 1988 when we finally got up the nerve to build our beautiful new 90 bed nursing home. We’ll all tell you more about it elsewhere on this site. It is attached to the old one by a covered walkway. The original building now houses the largest and best equipped rehab department of any nursing home in our area. There is a lovely studio apartment where out of town family members can make arrangements to stay overnight and rehab patients can practice their going home skills. There is a craft room and a computer lab, available to rehab patients as well as regular nursing home residents. (There is another resident computer in the library, but sometimes there is a line.) For several years the old nursing home held a children’s day care, but now they’ve outgrown us and moved to their new home. We miss the children. But we will do something interesting with that space soon. We aren’t sure what yet.

Doug Humble has moved to Colorado now, and I have almost, sort of, retired. I say sort of, because I’m here nearly every day. All three of our children have grown up in the business, and still are a major part of the operation. Doug III, a licensed nursing home administrator, is our administrator and operations manager. Tina is our head bookkeeper, and Liz works between the nursing home and the home health agency, using her artistic talents keeping our places beautifully decorated, and creating all our marketing materials.
Although I don’t live here now, for a couple of years recently. I lived in a little apartment in that first add-on wing we built. I ate my meals with the residents, and spent so much time with them that I got a pretty good sample of what it is like to live here as a resident. When I was satisfied that I could recommend it to anyone as a great place to live, I moved to the country, but I’ve kept the apartment, and now use it as an office.

It was a miracle that we, young and broke as we were, could become the owners of this nursing home. I have always seen it as a gift from God, and felt a great responsibility to make it the very best it can be. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job.
But that’s my opinion. How about visiting us and making up your own mind?