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Touching Lives

Designed with your comfort and ease of lifestyle in mind

At Heritage Woods of Yorkville, your affordable assisted lifestyle community in Yorkville, Illinois, your new home awaits you

All About Ann

We would like you to meet our mom, Ann. She was born in Hazelton, PA on February 1, 1924. Her father drove delivery wagons and worked in the coal mines. Her mother was a homemaker. At the time they had no car, no tv, no phone, and no indoor plumbing. What a difference 100 years makes!

After graduating from Hazelton High School in 1942, Ann went to work at the Craft Factory making men’s shirts. She worked there throughout World War II. After the war, she loved going dancing to the Big Swing Bands. Eventually she waved at a guy named Joe who became our father. They were married and moved to Illinois in 1947. They lived in Aurora for a while but then moved to a farm in Bristol. There, they raised dairy cattle and farmed acres of corn and beans. Later, they moved to Sugar Grove to another farm. Mom helped with everything on the farm and raised three children. She also raised prize winning pigs and had innumerable pets -dogs, cats, birds, foxes and raccoons just to name a few. She had several Dachshunds that were her favorite.

Her mom and dad moved to Illinois where they lived in an apartment on the farm. Her dad worked at a factory in Aurora until he retired. They were well taken care of by Ann and family until they passed.

Ann never learned how to drive. Friends and family took her places. She was a good cook but a wonderful baker. Her pies won many ribbons at local fairs. Everyone who visited was welcome at her table to enjoy some of her homemade goodies.

With her husband Joe, they were very active in the American legion. Joe served in several offices and she was in the auxiliary. Naturally they helped cook at any legion function. Our youngest sister was involved in all the parades dressed in red white and blue.

Our father worked for a couple of seed companies. With other dealers they were able to do a lot of traveling. Cruises to various places were their favorites. They also toured Hawaii. Her favorite story was as they were visiting a pineapple plantation our dad and their friends got in the car and took off leaving her behind. Of course they returned for her but they heard about it for a while. Las Vegas was another favorite. She loved playing the slot machines. Her daughters also took her to Deadwood, South Dakota a few times. That was a fun town. They even went to Sturgis one time as the motorcycle rally was happening.

Back on the farm, Ben’s Giant Pumpkins was born. For many years several acres of pumpkins, squash and Indian corn were raised. It started small but grew each year. We sold pick your own pumpkins for the month of October and had many customers from all over the area.

In 2007 during October, her husband Joe passed away. His loss is still felt, but his son is carrying on the farming.

Ann raised three children on the farm. Her son lives on and runs the family farm. One daughter lives in Missouri and one daughter lived in Wyoming for years and now resides in Texas. She is a proud grandmother of 5 and great grandmother of 10 and maybe more.

Arthritis was her worst enemy. The old farmhouse with a lot of stairs and it became too hard to manage and she now lives in Assisted living at Heritage Woods in Yorkville. There, she is taken care of and has many friends. Family visits as often as we can and it lights up her day. She now drives but it is in a wheelchair. Look out everyone!

Ann
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Elaine's Story

Meet Elaine! She recently became a part of our family here at Heritage Woods of Yorkville, and she has nothing but great things to say about our community.
 
Elaine shared, “I am very happy here. Everyone is very nice. I sent my towels to be laundered, and they came back folded and organized. It was so nice to have someone help me with that. I was mostly anxious about moving in, but the little things make the most difference in the world for me. It is nice that I have someone that comes and checks on me every shift.”
 
We are so grateful for Elaine’s kind words, and we couldn’t be happier to have her as a part of our community!

Delores' Story: Keeping Light Throughout the Pandemic

“Hello, this is Betty. I’ve been a resident here at Heritage Woods of Yorkville for over 8 ½ years. I came here because I wanted to live near my two daughters.
There are a lot of things that I like about living at Heritage Woods of Yorkville. I like having my meals prepared for me, having my laundry done, making good friends, and enjoying all the activities that we have. I even have a flower garden off the patio. The other residents also enjoy seeing the flowers too.
Other residents grew vegetable in their garden such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and peppers. They enjoyed giving some of their vegetables to their friends.
Activities that I enjoy are musical activities such as singing with the Glee Club and singing the old hymns with others. There are also games such as beanbag baseball, card games and bingo and they are fun.
Last week some of us went on our bus to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We enjoyed the good food there and seeing the countryside.
I joined the book club here and love to read. We like to discuss the latest book that we all have read. The Yorkville library will bring us books that we request and will pick them up after we have read them.
The staff here is very helpful. They bring me my medicines, clean my apartment, and help me with other needs. My daughters like the fact that I am safe here and have people who help me every day.
Heritage Woods of Yorkville is a good place to live. Maybe someday you’ll want to live here too. Come and see us!
This is Betty saying, bye for now!”
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The Best Decision for My Dad

My 90 year old Dad lives here and he’s so happy I stayed in his apartment for the first few days and I will tell you that the food is Absolutely Delicious and each and every staff member is Amazing and treats you like family !!! They always have fun activities for the residents too ❤ I can tell you that I have total peace of mind knowing that my Dad has 24 care just steps away if he would need it — while living an Independent life. His apartment is Always clean and they even do his laundry !!! Thank you Heritage Woods!

Delores' Story: Keeping Light Throughout the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on everyone over this past year. There has been a great deal of frustrations, with all the restrictions that were put in place and it has become often that we all lose sight on enjoying the smallest of moments while trying to abide and adapt to all these new changes in our daily routines.

However, through the greyness one of our residents shines and strives to remind us that the best medicine is laughter. 91-year-old Delores has made it a mission through this long quarantine to make everyone laugh who enters her apartment.  You never know if she is going to tell you a joke or pull a prank on you!

Dolores states that she not only loves bringing joy to others and hearing them laugh, but to see their eyes light up from the happiness they experience from her fun tricks.

Some of our favorite pranks she has pulled on us, is the mouse with glowing eyes hiding in the cabinet, the big spider lurking around the corner, and even her giant cricket the hides amongst the dishes. You never know what you may be in store for when you enter her apartment, but the smile will cross your face before you even enter.

We want to thank all our residents for staying strong and positive through this difficult time. We are all able to get through it together and continue to have some laughs along the way because after all laughter is the best medicine. 

delores