By Bill Petzold
Editor
Photo by Bill Petzold
The owners and management of Timberline Lodge adult foster care home at 3770 Colwood Road in Caro invite the public to a 25th anniversary open house Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. Pictured from left are resident manager Kris Diegel, maintenance manager Bob Diegel, co-founder Jean Graham and owners Don and Carol Smith.
CARO — Nestled in a wooded lot away from the road at 3770 Colwood Road near Caro, Timberline Lodge is an adult foster care home that families say is “just like home.”
Owners Don and Carol Smith, along with managers Kris and Bob Diegel invite the public to stop by Saturday between 1 and 4 p.m. when Timberline Lodge hosts its 25th anniversary open house. Light refreshments will be served.
Timberline Lodge, a licensed adult foster care facility, opened in 1988 when the Smiths and registered nurse Jean Graham recognized a need for a home where older adults could receive the care they need, while enjoying life in a cozy family-style environment.
The Smiths raised their children in the home they built, and after their children had grown up and moved out, they decided to open their homes to older adults. The Smiths and Graham were at a function about that time when Graham asked if Don knew where she could find a home to start an adult foster home. Don offered Graham the use of their family home.
“That idea originated because I’m a nurse and I used to work at the hospital,” Graham said. “For all the years I worked at Hills and Dales Hospital, we had elderly people who would chronically come into the hospital. Then when it was time to go home, they would start developing symptoms of why they shouldn’t go home. So one day I was talking to this one lady and I said, ‘Why don’t you want to go home?’ And she said, ‘Well, who’s going to get my mail? Who’s going to get my groceries? Who’s going to talk to me?’ And I started thinking about it, and I thought, ‘You know, someday I would like to have a home – and I had a grandmother, his mother, and she had a sister, and they were getting to the place where they had to stay with the family, and I just thought ‘I wish I had a home where I could stay with these people.’
“It worked out because I’m the nurse, he’s the builder and she’s the bookkeeper.”
Through her career, Graham had also put together a plan for the kind of care that she wanted to provide.
“I had worked as an advocate … and I had visited a few foster care homes, so I immediately told Don and Carol, ‘If we have a home, this is what it can’t be like.’ So that’s why they say it’s ‘first class.’ ”
Graham lived in the home for 23 years to make sure she was on hand to lend her medical expertise if needed. Timberline Lodge started out as a licensed care facility with six beds, but as word of the high quality of care offered there spread, demand was overwhelming.
“Our second year in business, we had 35 people on a waiting list,” Graham said. “I worked for 10 years for the Commission on Aging, and I worked with three counties, so I had people here from Harbor Beach, Port Austin, Caseville, and I knew all the doctors so I had a gold mine in contacts back then, and I never panicked about an empty bed until we were in business (for awhile), and then we had three people die and we had another empty bed for some reason, and so we went two or three months with just these four beds, and all of a sudden I had five people who wanted four beds, and then we stayed full for a long time.”
“When we started out, this was probably one of the first foster care homes that was started in our area, in the Caro area,” Don Smith said. “This was full immediately with people from town, the business people and their wives came here, teachers came here from all over; we just didn’t have enough room, that’s why we kept adding on.”
Don Smith said he expanded the building in 1990 to add five new bedrooms and 10 new bathrooms.
Today, Timberline Lodge offers 24-hour staffing, daily activities and complete personal care. Private and semi-private rooms are offered, where seniors can enjoy flower and vegetable gardens, shaded outdoor decks and outdoor walking areas.
The relaxing atmosphere is topped off with a personal touch from the staff that makes adults feel like part of the family.
Kris Diegel serves as resident manager, and her husband Bob is the maintenance manager. Kris had worked at Timberline Lodge previously before the couple returned on January 1, 2011.
“We eat family-style together at a big long dining table,” Kris Diegel said. “Then we have our deck they can enjoy. We have somebody that comes in and does games; we have somebody that does exercising with them. Occasionally we have someone come and sing and play piano, and we also do things with them, crafts and different stuff.
“I think it’s a wonderful setting because they sit together, they communicate together … this is all together, like a family. That’s what we try to structure off is family; family and love and just letting them know that we all care and want the best for them in their later years.”
“The Lord just stepped in and brought us qualified people,” Carol Smith said. “Bob and Kris are wonderful people, they do a wonderful job of managing, keeping up the paint, they do the gardens, they do the flowers, they help the people – they’re certainly a blessing to us.”
For information, call (989) 673-4990 or visit timberlinelodgeinc.com.