 Home | Recent News | Farmington | Manor Part of Love Story 09 May 2007 Presbyterian Manor Part of Couple’s Love StoryMention Presbyterian Manor to Barbara and Albert Graham and you will trigger a flood of memories that are part of their love story and wedding memories. It’s where they had their wedding reception. More than that, however, it was Dr. Fred Walker, the man behind the creation of Presbyterian Homelife—the forerunner to Presbyterian Manor—who married them. The date was June 15, 1968.
Their connection to the Manor was accidental in a sense. Just out of high school, the future Mrs. Graham was visiting a friend who worked there when the head of nursing walked up to her and asked if she was looking for a job.
“She told me if I’d clip my nails and remove the nail polish,” she would hire me that day.” It worked.
“Once I got hired, I met Dr. Walker who had a two-story house where I was able to live while I worked there. He was always very considerate of others and their feelings,” Graham explains.
His thoughtfulness and help didn’t end there. He told Graham and her friend that if they wanted to earn their Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) certificates and come back to the Presbyterian Homelife to work for a year, he would pay for their schooling. They took him up on it and headed for what is now Mineral Area College for the one-year LPN certification program. When she finished, Graham came back and worked for a year just as she had agreed.
Then Albert came along and marriage followed. Again, Dr. Walker played a role in the change in her life. He happily performed their wedding ceremony. They were married in the Presbyterian Church near the Manor.
The wedding reception was held in the then Manor dining room. The wedding cake was made by a friend of her family, and the employees and residents of the home pooled their assets and gave the couple a set of silverware, “in a beautiful wooden box,” which the couple uses even today.
“I still have the card with everybody’s name on it,” she says.
The Grahams had a son, Scott, in 1970. She left the Manor’s employ when she became pregnant and to stayed home during Scott’s formative years. He is now a computer technician in northern Missouri.
Both still have very fond memories of the Manor’s founder, Dr. Walker, whom Mrs. Graham describes as a “man’s man” and his wife, Helen, as a “lady’s lady.” He was someone who could talk with anyone, says Graham. His key role in their lives will not be forgotten.
As residents of the area, the Grahams have lived through the historic milestones of the Manor which is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year. The Manor was one of three in Missouri, and was established with the support of the Presbyterian Synods of Missouri. When Graham worked for Homelife, there was only one building with 30 residents. When another wing was added, there was room for 15 more residents.
Over the years, that has changed. The Grahams saw Manor expansions in 1965 and in 1974, when the health care center was added. In 1967, private homes were purchased by the Manor to add to the 75 residents already calling the Manor their home. Then in 1978, the three locations were acquired by the company which became Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, Inc. that operates 17 Manors in Kansas and Missouri.
In 1996, a new health care center was added and the previous health care center became a memory support residential program. Now Presbyterian Manor of Farmington is home to more than 160 residents on an 11-acre campus featuring active living cottages, town homes and apartments, assisted living accommodations, a memory support program and a health care center.
Today, Graham works days in the post surgical unit at Parkland Health Center Hospital in Farmington. Her husband, a retired farmer, is caring for his elderly mother, Glenda Graham, 90. Their connection to Presbyterian Manor continues. Recently, they had occasion to take the elder Mrs. Graham to Presbyterian Manor for a stint of “respite care,” a temporary stay, to give him a break from the around the clock care giving and to give his mother a change of scenery. “It was a very successful stay for her,” said Graham.
Not only did she reconnect with old friends, she made new ones, Graham explains. She praised the various activities Presbyterian Manor offers for even those who are there for a short stay. They are providing opportunities to keep seniors active, mentally and physically.
In particular, she says, Glenda Graham enjoyed the activities in which the older generation was teamed with the younger generation—in this case, making cookies together.
“I said to my husband, ‘wouldn’t Dr. Walker have been proud of the way everything turned out at the Manor?’,” says Barbara Graham.
He was fond of birds and, as you enter the main building, you see live birds in an aviary. In other parts of the building, his love of nature is reflected in the built-in aquariums that the residents can enjoy. There was even a cat, owned by one of the temporary residents, Graham adds.
The Manor, she adds in understatement, “has really grown” over the years. For the Grahams, the Presbyterian Manor will always hold a special place in their lives.
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