Love Notes

On the pages of our newsletters, you see images of the impact of your generosity.  And we are so grateful for the joy you bring to our residents’ lives. I too draw energy from the smiles of the men and women of Angles’ Place – When Sue and Mary Beth tap their fingers on my office glass wall and wave hello. When Mark comes into my office and sits down like he owns the place. When Paul calls out from across the room. When Lenny wants to bump elbows. When Therese asks if she can ask me a question. When Katie says she likes my sweater or when Charlotte says she likes my shoes (she likes everyone’s shoes). When Matt and I tease each other about Michigan vs. Michigan State. The list of joys goes on-and-on.  I wish you could experience these with me.  What you are less likely to see is the reality of life that is played out in every family: Recently seven staff (including myself) and eleven residents had COVID.  Just when we thought it was safe, we had the biggest surge in ...

There is so much we can all learn about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  I learn something new every day. Here’s one story: Over the last few months, I’ve needed to visit one Angels’ Place home multiple times. On my first visit, John didn’t want to engage with me. A few visits later, he simply said hi. Later, he showed me some of the things he had been doing on his iPad And a visit later, John offered to make me a cup of coffee, shared his private stash of International Delight coffee creamer, and we had a nice talk about Tom Brady, and how much he loves his Angels’ Place housemates.   In that one setting, here are three things I learned: 1. Like all of us, our residents want to have relationships.  Sometimes it takes a while to establish trust, but our residents are capable of great relationships. 2. If they can, our residents want to do things themselves.  Before you do for them, let them accomplish things themselves.  If they...

There is so much we can all learn about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – and learn about their families.  I learn something new every day. Beyond the joy of working with our residents, I’ve also come to know some of their parents, guardians and family members.  Here are three things I’ve learned about them: 1. First and foremost, these parents want the same things for their children that all of us do – nothing more and nothing less.  And yet, they know that some things will never happen and few things come easy -- so they need to continuously advocate of behalf of their child.  They are grateful when others advocate with them. 2. The system of care is complicated and time consuming.  It’s exhausting. 3. Every day, in addition to dealing with the challenge of caring for their loved one, they think about “what happens to this person when I’m gone”.  Angels’ Place is one answer to that question, but unfortunately, we can’t be the...

There is so much we can all learn about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – and about the people who care for them.  I learn something new every day. Angels’ Place employs over 100 caregivers.  Here are three things I’ve learned about them: 1. The people who choose the caregiver profession are kind, generous souls.  Most consider this their sacred mission in life.  Many have been caring for someone – their own child, a parent, a grandparent -- nearly their entire life. 2. This is rewarding work, but hard work – its easy to imagine the fun times – enjoying a meal, going for a walk, playing a game… but their work includes preparing those meals, keeping the house clean, laundry, and personal hygiene care. 3. The training is difficult and the documentation and paperwork seems to never end.  What they accomplish is amazing. There is so much to learn – and we are all learning every day.   We are so thankful for the people who chos...

In October, Angels’ Place was approached by our friends at the Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame – for a resident to create artwork for their annual Christmas card.  Several of our residents took up the challenge.  The work done by Lenny W. was selected as the one to be used. When the card was created, Lenny’s picture was included along with a brief explanation of our organization.  The card was sent to dozens of famous athletes including Mike Ditka, Alan Trammell, Janet Lynn, and Mike Krzyzewski. Recently, a beautiful box of art supplies arrived at the Angels’ Place office.  It was addressed simply to Lenny.  It gave him and his Mom huge smiles; it gave the whole office goosebumps. After some investigation, we learned that the previously anonymous gift was sent by baseball all-star and NBC broadcaster Tony Kubek. More often than not, we can’t draw a direct line between one small experience and someone’s kindness to our residents – in this case, the generosity...