MAYSVILLE – Kenton Pointe Assisted Living Community will celebrate five years of service on Feb. 5 along with some staff and residents who have been there since the first year.
“It’s like one big family,” said Kenton Pointe Administrative Assistant Krista Griffin. “We have 32 apartments and 36 residents.”
The assisted living facility has several staff members who have worked at this establishment since the beginning.
Food Service Manager Sergio Furtado started working at the assisted living facility before it opened.
“The staff was all hand-picked,” said Furtado. “They all work together well and love one another and I think that is great.”
“I came here for the maintenance job,” said Gerry Becker. “But I have been here for five years now and it’s been good to me. All the people I work with care about the residents as well as each other. We are blessed with all the people who work here, really blessed.”
Mary Anna Best is in charge of activities at the facility and said that the residents are able to come and go as they please and feel as independent as they wish.
“If they want to be social, they can be. If they want to stay in their apartment, they can do that too,” said Best. “If they drive, they can drive wherever they want. They aren’t locked up here and aren’t expected back at any certain time. We do offer transportation to local doctors and we also have days that we take them to do some shopping and banking if they need to.”
All of the workers agree their coworkers and residents are family to them. Griffin said she spent more time at the facility than she did with her family back home. While seeing the residents thrive and enjoy themselves, the workers agree that losing a resident is extremely hard.
While some residents have come and gone, others have been there from the beginning.
Russell Robinson, 93, has been a resident at Kenton Pointe for nearly five years and says he loves it.
“It’s been just wonderful,” said Robinson. ”I lived alone for 17 years and my wife passed away 22 years ago.”
He talked about how helpful the staff was and the activities that he is able to partake in.
“I like to fish and they help me out whenever I need it,” said Robinson. “They’ll come take the fish off my hook and even bait it if I need them too. I started gardening in the beginning, mainly tomato plants and I have some out there now. One time, a lady who lived here asked me to save her the fish I caught so she could get them cooked for her. She left them in her sink overnight and when someone came in to give her some medicine, they went to get water from the sink and those fish just started flopping around and scared her to death.”
Robinson reflected on some of the funny experiences he had since living at Kenton Pointe.
“There was one woman who would come walking by my window where my tomato plants are,” said Robinson. “She would think that nobody could see her and she would hide them in a little pouch on her front. Well, we all were at an exercise class and she bent over stretching and all those tomatoes came rolling out and we all had a good laugh.”
One of his favorite things about the staff is how thoughtful they can be.
“I love frog legs,” said Robinson. “They always have them here for me and one time they didn’t so they called about it and got a couple cases for me. They even took me out to a seafood event one time and I asked if they had frog legs and they did, so they took me.”
Residence Director Janet White said that the staff all works well together. She took her position in September 2017 and has enjoyed her job ever since.
Kenton Pointe Assisted Living Facility will be holding an open house event on Feb. 8 for people to learn more about the staff as well as the facility. The event begins at 5:30 p.m., and will last about two hours.
More information can be found at www.kentonpointe.org or by calling 606-759-0311.
Kenton Pointe Assisted Living Center is scheduled to open Monday.
