“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”

– David Bowie

Whenever we look at the elderly, we usually see them as sickly persons, completely reliant on the constant help and support of their caretakers. We fail to remember that these seniors were once young, spirited, and had lived some riveting lives of their own. At some point in time, they were all teenagers with diverse hobbies, who traveled, and went to parties, and enjoyed their lives as we all do. Some of them fell in love and quickly started families of their own, while others chose to pursue professional careers and realize their wildest dreams. Whichever path they chose, their life stories deserve to be heard.

The residents of St. Joseph Senior Home too have lived fascinating lives and have many stories that deserve to be shared, and we have decided to provide them with a platform to do so. Many of our residents are no longer able to narrate their own life stories due to severe illnesses or memory loss, but as always, we could rely on their relatives to get involved in the project and provide us with detailed biographies and fun facts about the lives of our residents. We invite you to check out the first blogs which are already available on our website, dedicated to the life stories of St. Joseph’s residents, Irene Butrico, Little Ania, Edward Sita, Salvatore Bongiorno, Gina Stelma. Though Gina is no longer with us, as she has passed away due to COVID, her memory still lives on within our hearts, and we still admire her strength to remain cheerful and smiling throughout the years that she had spent suffering from severe health conditions. We continue to spread Gina’s life story because we believe that one of the most important lessons to be learned from it, is that each life is indeed worth living, despite not being “perfect” in the eyes of others.

“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

“Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.” – Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

We encourage all of you who believe that the life stories of your senior relatives are worth sharing to contact us at info@stjosephseniorhome.com

We hope that these posts dedicated to the lives of our residents will help everyone remember that despite their age and various illnesses they are suffering from, they are not so different from us, and we have a lot to learn from their experiences. We should treat these stories as a reminder that one day, we will also look back on our lives and reminisce about our youth.

This message is perfectly captured in a poem written by one of the nurses working at St. Joseph’s, Susan Barnhart.