Nona’s Place provides comfort, care, compassion
Juanita Steffens and Cory Bull at Nona’s Place (Photo by Illinois Valley News)
For many senior residents of Illinois Valley, Cory Bull knows that as the time arrives when they can no longer live on their own, there are few options.
Bull said that she has worked in senior care for 15 years, including a few residential facilities and a nursing home in Grants Pass.
“I’ve seen a lot of Cave Junction residents who had to leave the valley,” she noted, often leaving behind friends or family who struggle to schedule visits.
“The places were too ‘corporate feeling’,” Bull states, and she felt that residents suffered from a lack of continuity of care as employees cycled through the facility.
“You just can’t get the kind of one-on-one care that’s really beneficial and appreciated,” she explained. Bull had a dream to bring quality residential care to Illinois Valley.
In late July, after two years of legal hurdles and remodeling, she and her mother, Tami Duhaime, opened Nona’s Place, a five-bedroom senior adult foster home; the first within Cave Junction city limits.
Residents receive 24-hour supervision, and everything -- All necessities and food, all medication administration and all assistance with bathing, showering, and toilet, if necessary -- are taken care of. The monthly rate of $2,800 for a private-pay resident doesn’t increase, Bull said, unless the resident becomes bed-bound.
The home on S. Old Stage Road was donated by a family friend, for whom Bull’s grandmother cared for 30 years.
“We shared every tear, every joy, every holiday, every hair appointment with ‘Nona.’ She was a family friend,” Bull recalls.
‘Nona,’ who received hospice care, and through the assistance of Bull’s family stayed in her home until she died, supported the idea of the foster home.
Longtime Cave Junction resident Juanita Steffens, 84, was among the first to move in. She spent a year in a residential facility in Grants Pass, and moved home to Cave Junction when Nona’s Place opened.
“They treat me like a princess,” Juanita enthused about her new living situation. Her family lives quite close, and friends bring bouquets of flowers frequently.
The closeness of family and favorite belongings help the residents feel more comfortable, Bull said.
“The two ladies here,” she said, “their families stop by all the time. They decorate and bring special things by. When Juanita, (who has dementia) wakes up in her room without knowing where she is she tells me that she thinks, ‘Well, I know you must like me because you have my paintings on the wall.’ And she feels comfortable enough to go back to sleep.”
Bull, a life-long Cave Junction resident, began care-giving at 13, when she took on care for her diabetic grandmother. And she learned it’s the small details that give great comfort.
“When I realized that a sugar-free cup of hot cocoa and some sugar-free cookies just made her world, I thought, ‘I can do this’,” she said.
“It’s a rewarding job, for both sides,” Bull continued. “For them to be treated with respect and dignity and to get the, ‘Oh, Thank you!’ from the people you’ve just given a massage or helped with their pain.
“Whatever it takes to help make them comfortable,” she noted.
Two rooms in the clean, spacious home are reserved for state-paid residents. One is currently occupied. Residents take meals together family style. Duhaime, who said that she has 10 years experience in senior care, is the resident manager.
“We say that at Nona’s Place, compassion comes naturally, and happiness is homemade,” Bull observed.
An open house is set for Friday, Aug. 10 from 2 to 6 p.m. It is located at 210 S. Old Stage Road, two doors south of Picket Fence Fabrics.
Cory Bull can be reached at 592-6309.
