Greatest Generation touches the hearts of later generations

By Rachel Byrd

Since the day I was born, I’ve been surrounded by older adults.

Back in 1989, my grandfather, Pastor Richard “Dick” Hafer, was a founding member of Gulf Coast Village, the only life plan community in Cape Coral. As a senior in high school and as one of my first jobs, I worked as a server in the Gulf Coast Village dining room. Upon high school graduation, I applied to the scholarship program at Gulf Coast Village, which presented me and a few other employees with scholarships to use for college, fully funded by the Village residents. After receiving my bachelor’s degree in sociology, I returned to Gulf Coast Village as a life enrichment assistant before going on to study gerontology in graduate school.

Making the choice to work with older adults throughout my career was easy – after all, it’s what I knew best.

Over the last 13 years, I’ve held six different positions at Gulf Coast Village, each greater than the last. In all roles, I’ve been inspired day in and day out by each resident that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Helping older adults choose the perfect place to call home in this new phase of their life is an honor I can’t describe. As a Millennial, I think that older adults have a greater perspective on life – one that I can learn from. They inspire me to not take things so seriously. At 28 years old, it’s easy to think that some mishap is the end of the world, but the residents I talk to each day have taught me that life goes on, and that you learn to cruise over bumps in the road and not take life so seriously.

It’s also the little things that bring me joy, like being the go-to technology whiz for residents who want to print out the daily crosswords or helping them access their voicemails or family text messages. A lot of the time, I feel like an adopted grandchild to them, as do many of our team members at Gulf Coast Village.

“These are somebody’s relatives, and when I walk into this building, they’re mine,” says Donna Furtado, a certified nursing assistant (CNA) here at Palmview.

Furtado, born in the Baby Boomer generation, has been at Gulf Coast Village since 2015. In her role as a CNA, she gets to spend her days talking to and caring for residents in assisted living, and she leaves work each day feeling fulfilled and connected. She loves to learn about the likes and dislikes of each resident, their life experiences and to listen to their riveting stories of a time before her. Furtado has learned a lot from Palmview residents, but hearing the stories of their lives and the challenges they have overcome is what has truly inspired her.

The stories of the Greatest Generation even reach those who work behind the scenes, like Migna Perez, who works as a housekeeper at Gulf Coast Village. For 12 and a half years, Perez has been a listener. Whether she’s emptying a trash can in a resident’s apartment or seeing a Palmview resident walk down the hallway, she goes out of her way to talk to them because she finds their stories to be not just interesting, but also inspiring.

There’s nothing more special than being the person that an older adult chooses to tell their life story to – learning about the lives of a generation that was so different from your own inspires a newfound level of curiosity. This Assisted Living Week, take a few moments to connect with an older adult close to you, and get inspired.

About the author

Rachel Byrd is the area sales and marketing director for assisted living at Gulf Coast Village and The Preserve. To learn more about Palmview at Gulf Coast Village, visit GulfCoastVillage.org/Assisted-Living.