When Virginia Molnar’s family realized she was having increasing difficulty managing day-to-day activities and properly caring for herself at home, they began to search in earnest for a senior living facility with the ability to not only meet her current needs, but also to provide a broad continuum of care levels and residential options in order to meet her future needs.
They found what they were looking for at The Gardens of St. Francis, a CHI Living Communities facility located at 930 S. Wynn Road in Oregon, Ohio.
Virginia, who will turn 89 in June, moved to The Gardens of St. Francis in March of 2021—at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, her family began to observe that she was struggling about a year earlier. Paul Molnar, Virginia’s son, explains, “After Dad died, Mom was living by herself at home and we noticed that she was having trouble caring for herself adequately and was not eating right.” One of the major turning points for Paul and the rest of Virginia’s family was when Virginia was still driving. He recalls, “After coming home from a doctor’s appointment, she told us, ‘I had a little accident with the car.’ It turned out the whole right quarter panel of her car was missing.
She had torn it off on a low guardrail. The insurance company totaled the vehicle, and we had to tell her she was done driving.”
Virginia continued to live by herself for about another six months, and during that time it became clear that she was having more and more issues with personal hygiene, feeding herself, and managing her medications. “We knew we needed help,” Paul says. “Mom needed much more care than we could realistically provide at home.”
Virginia’s family explored several local senior care options, ultimately settling on The Gardens of St. Francis. Not only were the services and amenities at The Gardens of St. Francis a good fit for Virginia, but, having been East Side residents, the Molnar family was also already familiar with the facility. In fact, as a St. Stephen parishioner, Virginia had for many years participated in a project that provided Christmas gifts to residents of the community when the campus was still owned and operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor. Also, Paul notes, several of his relatives had resided in the facility over the years. Another major selling point was the fact that The Gardens of St. Francis has a beautiful chapel and offers onsite Mass, which is very important to Virginia and her family.
Virginia started out in an assisted living apartment, where she received all the help she needed with hygiene, eating, medications, and other dayto- day activities, and was doing very well initially (notwithstanding the fact that residents were still isolated in their rooms due to COVID). However, the facility’s care continuum soon proved its worth. “About nine months in, Mom got up at night, fell between the bedroom and bathroom, and broke her upper femur. So, she moved up to the second floor for about two months of skilled therapy. Also at that time, we noted she was having a lot of dementia issues. She had been diagnosed with pre-dementia about a year earlier, and it was obviously getting worse, so we decided it was time to move her to memory care. She moved from the first floor to the second floor to the third floor, all within the span of about a year and a half,” Paul says.
Paul and his family are grateful that Virginia has access to multiple levels of care, as well as hospice and end-of-life care, all under one roof, allowing her to remain in familiar, comfortable surroundings while freeing them from the burden of having to shop for new facilities repeatedly. Paul also appreciates that The Gardens of St. Francis encourages residents’ caregivers to participate in a Family Council, which meets once a month to discuss any issues or areas of concern and bring them to the attention of senior staff. “The administrative staff is very receptive to the council and responsive to issues,” he states.
Looking back at his experience with The Gardens of St. Francis so far, Paul is confident his mother is in the right place. “The people are great. Every staff member I talk to is a very loving, caring person—and they deserve kudos for that. Also, the facility is beautiful, and they do a good job of keeping things up to date. The property is very nice and situated in an almost farm-like setting with Pearson Park right across the street. It feels like you’re out in the country, but you’re still very close to the city,” he says. ✲
