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Touching Lives

Designed with your comfort and ease of lifestyle in mind

At Evergreen Village, your affordable assisted lifestyle community in Bloomington, Indiana, your new home awaits you

Evergreen Village is proud to provide a choice of apartment floor plans, each designed with your comfort and ease of lifestyle in mind. Our spacious apartments are designed with a living room area, kitchenette, full private bathroom and individually controlled air temperature.

All measurements are approximate, and dimensions may vary.

Pauline's Journey to Evergreen Village

The picture here is of one of our newest residents Pauline and she was on our wait list at Evergreen Village for a long time. She, like many of our residents, was living at home in her apartment and over time her daughter began to notice after COVID she just didn’t seem to be as involved, motivated to succeed, interested in getting out and in turn was not thriving while living alone. She put in a reservation but was slow to work the process toward admission. When she did complete the process we quickly scheduled Pauline for nursing assessment and full tour of the community. While her daughter was excited for the opportunity and a new start, Pauline did not share those feelings. She completed the assessment was approved and then came moving day. Pauline REFUSED to open the door for the movers or her daughter. She fought tooth and nail and eventually got her way. Pauline did not move to Evergreen Village.

Our team stayed in contact with Pauline and her family and continued to make sure they knew when the time was right we would be there for them. We now fast forward several (6+) months and Pauline and daughter were ready to revisit Evergreen Village. We knew she wanted a room facing the daycare across the street and the stars alighted to ensure that happened. This time Pauline became a member of our Evergreen Village family.

She moved in, she has been learning the lay of the land and getting to know people. She has enjoyed going down to socialize at meals, sit in the lobby, work on puzzles, and keep an eye on all the kids going in and out of the daycare across the street. Pauline’s daughter came last week to pick her up and take her out (this was the only socializing Pauline got when she was at her home apartment) and Pauline refused! She told her daughter; I can’t leave today its fried chicken day at lunch. Pauline’s daughter told her “but mom” and Pauline quickly replied, I’m going to eat fried chicken with my friends and then we can go if you want. In the end, Pauline and her daughter ate fried chicken here at Evergreen and socialized with Pauline’s new friends for over an hour at lunch and then decided to head out for a little while shopping.

 

It is amazing to see the life, energy and purpose Evergreen has brought to Pauline. Her daughter and her are thrilled with the move to Evergreen Village. It is a very cool story just showing how valuable our product is for residents, even if it takes them a little longer to decide this is home. Cheers!

 

Janice's Story

Evergreen Resident, Janice, was a dear friend to the residents and staff at Evergreen Village. Janice was an amazing resident of our community prior to her passing and her passion was shared with all of us today. Janice loved to collect Boyd Bears resin statues and she loved her Evergreen Family!  With that love, her family lovingly donated her collection to the residents in memory of her friendship with all of our Evergreen Residents.  We honored Janice with a Boyd Bears Tea Party in her memory and our residents were excited to share in that experience and reminisce about the memories made with Janice.  It was a joy to gather together and enjoy Janice’s passion. 

Sherris Story: Finding New Life in Purpose

Our new Resident Services Coordinator, Sherri Ganka, joined our team in March of 2022. Sherri is a very experienced, knowledgeable RSC and immediately put to work an active and exciting calendar that pushed our residents to do more things and be more active. We quickly realized when we ask our residents to do more and be more active they were starving for just that purpose. Sherri kept the calendar full and asked our residents to help, they came out in large numbers to support. They wanted to share their talents, be active and help. Our residents found new life and purpose in this volunteering opportunity. We are now lucky to have several resident volunteers leading things like, bingo, exercise, crafting, coloring clubs, garden clubs, move nights bible study, running the country store and much more. The residents are also doing a great job of promoting the activities and the attendance is way up across the board. In speaking with the residents they are talking about new and creative ways to have activity here in the building.

Charles’ Story: We are all Family here, we help each other out

Charles moved to Evergreen Village in February of 2022, he had been couch surfing and doing his best to be successful after some failed family relationships. Charles had been in touch with our team since before he was old enough to live here and as soon as he turned 62 he started our process and moved to Evergreen Village. Charles was instantly so thankful to have a safe, clean home and the security of knowing where his next meal would be coming from versus the unknown he had been experiencing. Charles was the kind of resident we all love because he truly appreciated our teams effort.

Charles quickly worked to find ways to fit in, help others and stay active. He found a wonderful niche and has become the Evergreen dog walker. Charles loves to help the other residents with their dogs, walking them, bringing them treats, and caring for them if and when their owner leaves for a short period of time. We have a few pups here at Evergreen who love to announce their presence and are loud (barking) and Charles works to help train them. The most recent example of his kindness came when one of our newest residents with a dog had to be taken out via ambulance and the Charles jumped to action, coming down getting the dog, providing it comfort, ensuring it was cared for and walked until its owner returned. When she did return she was still tired and weak in the beginning so Charles would go down a few times a day and help her get her pup out for walks and to use the bathroom.

Charles told us, he has not only found a home at Evergreen Village but a family and a place he really can help. I love seeing him support our other residents. Our team and the residents appreciate Charles!

Charles Bloom

Patty's Story: Always Part of The Family

Patty was a resident at our community when we opened in 2018 and lived here until late 2021. She got to know all of our team but developed a special relationship with Charlie, our dietary directors pup. They were best buddies. Rich our dietary director and Charlie went to visit Patty this past week in her current home, they brought her our famous taco salad and Patty and Charlie got a chance to visit again.

Darlene’s Story: A Rewarding Passion for Baking

Darlene moved to our community in November of 2018 just before the holidays. Darlene had lived alone a long time, and wasn’t the most social individual as a traumatic past had affected her ability to trust other people. Darlene’s circle was small in the community and her family included an elderly mother that lived 30 minutes away and a daughter who resided in Florida. Darlene made the decision to sell her care shortly after coming to Evergreen Village which then again made her ability to get out and interact outside of the community that much more of a task. Darlene was a beautiful soul, she loved diet coke, sweet snacks, a good meal and reading all kinds of books from our library here at Evergreen Village. She wanted things a certain way and was never hesitant to tell you that way if you were willing to listen.

Dalene’s mother moved to a nursing home just a few months ago so seeing her became even more difficult as previously she would take a bus or travel with a friend every few months here to see her daughter. Darlene’s circle got smaller. She loved her daughter but she lived in Florida and while they spoke on the phone daily in person visits were difficult. Darlene’s family became the team at Evergreen Village at Bloomington. Darlene relied on us, she needed our help, we supported her and we helped her be successful in our setting. We were her people!

Darlene became sick and passed away in mid to late February of 2022 rather unexpected. Julie her daughter made it up to be with her mom in the end and her mom was able to come from the nursing home to provide her comfort, but still Darlene’s circle was small. The family decided to just have a graveside ceremony to celebrate Darlene with close family and friends as they also knew, Darlene’s circle was small. Our team knew we wanted to support Darlene and her family so we loaded the up the Evergreen bus and took staff over to the ceremony. There were about 10 total people and 6 were Evergreen Village at Bloomington team members. We were her people!  Darlene’s family blessed both myself and my business office manager Dana with whom she was close the honor of being pallbearers for Darlene. We were honored and truly got to help support Darlene all the way to her final resting place. We were her people! It’s amazing the opportunity we all have to make an impact every day. We can never lose site of the relationships and why this is a business it’s a people business. It’s about our people. Rest East Friend, until we meet again.

ground hogs 5

Darlene’s Story: A Rewarding Passion for Baking

Evergreen Village had our first ever signature cookie contest during Assisted Living Week 2019. The winner of that contest was Darlene Pendill. Now, Darlene has had a lifetime enjoyment of baking, which started with watching her father bake. Darlene’s father was a professional baker, and she said she picked up his baking skills and also the artistic way in which he lived life. Darlene stated that over the years, her health has taken a toll on her. When she was just in her thirties, she had to live in a germ-free, man-made bubble inside her home due to her immune system shutting down. She couldn’t come out of the bubble, and her children could not come into the bubble.  She said what got her through those tough years was a positive attitude, her children and painting. Even during those tough times, it did not take away from her passion for baking.

Darlene said that the cookie competition was one of the first competitions that she had ever been in. She never got to participate in competitions as a child and was excited to showcase her passion for baking. She said that winning the competition made her excited to bake again. Darlene will now be baking Evergreen Signature Cookies at least once a month, and that also makes her excited. The cookie competition had really restarted a fire in her and gave her, as a newer resident, the opportunity to meet people. She said she met so many new faces, and other residents started to talk to her more. It truly opened up more ways to connect with her neighbors.

Darlene also stated that by just participating in the competition, it sparked new ideas in her for ways she could use her talents or passions to help or connect with others. Darlene had heard some of her neighbors talk about not always knowing what day of the week it was. She, now, has started making daily decorated cards that tell people the day of the week and month. She puts these out every day on the dining room tables so that everyone knows what day it is without question. She hopes that by others seeing her use her talents, they will be inspired to share their talents with the community.