Saint Therese Home, Inc

1. Overall experience. My friend is very happy at St Mary on the Woods. 2. Cleanliness. The facility is spotless and her room is thoroughly cleaned weekly 3. Friendliness of staff. She loves her care team and thinks of them as friends 4. Quality of care. She is well looked after has no complaints 5. Meals/Dining. My friend came to St Mary very underweight and is now consistently gaining weight. She loves the food, especially her bacon, eggs and coffee in the morning. 6. Activities. She is beginning to get more involved with the activity programs. 7. Value for Cost. I am not aware of the cost so can't comment on this point.

The meals are good, there is always something for the residents to pick from and overall the pricing is okay. I would recommend St. Mary of the Woods to other families based on the experience I have had so far.

Overall, it is a wonderful place. However, it is more expensive than many others. The wait staff is very friendly, accommodating and helpful.

Beautiful environment, friendly staff, great Therapists, delicious and wholesome meals, lots of activities, would highly recommend , go on a tour and see for yourself, everything is spotless and clean, a safe and caring place to be!!

Our family had in person tour experience and it was great the Saint Therese community was wonderful. It is a beautiful community, this was our second choice. However the community was way to far from our house and the hallways were to long for our loved one to walk with her walker. Also it was way to expensive.

Workers and staff are nice. Love my 2 bedroom apartment, spending time in the library, and all of the entertainment that comes to perform.

The meals are good and the activities are fun! The staff are nice and help you when you need help. I think everything is nice and would recommend this facility to anyone.

If I can't be at home, this is where I want to be! I love the people who live here and work here! It's like one big family. I enjoy the food at each meal and the variety of activities offered. I love living here and would recommend it to anyone looking!

I feel secure and safe living here. The facility is well maintained. Plenty of activities if you want to be involved in them. My family enjoys visiting me here. I would recommend this facility to anyone who is looking. The location is great! I do wish there was some more closet space, but other than that I enjoy living here.

If you have to live in a place like this, this is the place to be. The staff are wonderful and always nice. Always feel safe and right at home. The Saint Therese community cares about people and the residents living here.

My Father hss been a rrsident at St. Mary of the Woods for almost 10 years. He started in Independent Living. Two years ago he had a stroke and needed the nursing services. The nursing and therapy team did a great job helping him recover. Unfortunately he could not return to Independent Living. He is now in Assisted Living and doing very well. I highly recommend St. Marys!

My dad stayed here for a few weeks, and he received great care. Great nursing staff.

Fantastic and caring staff on the TCU. My father and our family had a great 30+ day experience. Would recommend to all! Love Saint Therese!!

We brought our mother, Alice, to St.Theresa's for hospice. Not only did she receive excellent care, but this care truly was provided with love. Our family was allowed to make the necessary decisions without pressure or judgement but with skilled advice & received more than our share of TLC form the staff as well. Not only did this allow our family to "just be family" instead of caregivers, but it also provided my mother with new friendship. She bonded so much with one of the staff that he asked to be present the night she died & was with us in the room to say goodbye to her. (This still brings tears to my eyes almost 4 years later...) St. Theresa's hospice staff was a beautiful blessing to our Mom and to our entire family. They are still often in my thoughts & I recommend them to anyone who is looking for a beautiful hospice experience for their family member or for themselves.

My Mother has been in and out of rehab facilities for 1 1/2 yrs. and this is by far the best care she has received. PT 2x day for an hour and OT 1x day 6 days a week. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The food is amazing, gourmet standards, and the facility is beautiful and clean. We were hesitant to go here because of the horrible reviews and planned on transferring once another place had an open room. We are very happy she is here and plan to stay through transitional care and are considering assisted living. I highly recommend this facility for anyone that wants great care in a friendly, clean environment.

I never wanted to live in an institution, to live with strangers. I wanted to keep my independence and my privacy. I wanted to spend the rest of my life in our own home with my wife, [name removed]. We had never owned a house before I retired. I was a minister, and we lived in houses the churches provided. [name removed] never complained about that, but when we finally were able to buy a house, she was overjoyed. “This is my house,” she would say. “I love my house.” It was a modest but pleasant house, with a patio where I could sit and read and watch the hummingbirds. And it was in an ideal location. We could walk to Lake Erie, sit on a bench, hold hands, and watch the sailboats go by. We were only a few blocks from the library and our favorite ice cream parlor. We were happy. But then life changed. [name removed] fell while walking to the bank and had to be helped home. She had a partial shoulder replacement, and brain surgery for water on the brain, and surgery and radiation for breast cancer, and then dementia. And our world fell apart. Finally, she died, at home, in my arms, after sixty-one years of marriage. What to do now? I was grieving and not well, and I didn’t want my family to have to care for me as they had for [name removed]. I thought about assisted living, but it seemed too expensive. That is, until my children convinced me that because I would no longer be paying for home health care or a mortgage or insurance or maintenance on the house or the upkeep of a car or for utilities or groceries or lawn care, it should be possible. And then, as a bonus, there would be no more cooking or cleaning or taking out the trash. And I would have my own apartment, with my own familiar furniture, and my music, and my books. So we visited several assisted living facilities, none of which appealed to me. One was affordable, but it was geared to young people and had little privacy. Another was large and impersonal. Still another was too close to a commercial area and a noisy construction site. But finally we found one that felt right, a quiet place called St. Mary of the Woods in Avon, Ohio. A friendly man who greeted us at St. Mary had a name tag that said simply “[name removed].” He turned out to be the administrator. The people who showed us around were kind and helpful. The apartments were comfortable, and the menus looked good. The Bingo and card games they offered didn’t interest me, but the musical performances, visits to the Cleveland Orchestra and the Ohio Light Opera, worship services, and opportunities for exercise did. So I took the plunge and signed up. And the house that [name removed] loved, with all its memories, was sold. St. Mary is a beautiful building, painstakingly maintained. But far more important are the kind and caring people I found here. I once told [name removed] I would live in a barn if I had these same people with me. From day one all the members of the staff knew my name. So I determined to learn their names and the names of the residents, and I made a list so I wouldn’t forget. And with the names, I met some fascinating people, both residents and staff. One resident, a former sailor, was easily recognized by the three American flags on his wheelchair. Another resident had two pinwheels on hers. A tablemate, just turned ninety-six, teases me about my falling asleep and failing to meet him to go to a worship service. I told him that when I fell asleep on the couch the book I had been reading fell on my toe and woke me up, and every so often, he says, with a twinkle in his eye, “I hope you didn’t hurt your toe.” Another tablemate told me about his high school teammate, Cliff Lewis, who became the first starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. One woman told me how she grew up on a farm, milking cows, went to college to study chemistry, and worked as a chemist all her life. Another woman, in her nineties, walks every day, has a pedometer, and tells me how many miles she has gone. A woman at her table just turned 102. There is a fascinating variety of backgrounds here that I didn’t have at home. A man tells me his parents came from Poland, and I ask him whether he speaks Polish. He answers me in Polish. A new woman grew up in the same neighborhood he did, and the staff sings “Happy Birthday” to her in Polish. A woman from the Province of Quebec proudly speaks French. A man who grew up speaking Italian teaches me a few phrases, and we usually greet each other in Italian, as I greet a woman from Austria in the German I learned in school. In addition to the residents, I also meet some of their families, like the former helicopter pilot who has his own plane and flies in from Alabama to see his mother. And his seven siblings who visit her faithfully. I would never have met any of these interesting people, if I were still at home, sitting on the couch all day, looking out the window, and lamenting times past. Many of the people who work here have become friends. The server who brought her fiancé in to introduce him to us. Her sister, who plays the viola in her high school orchestra. We talk about music and her college plans. Another server who jokingly reminds me to “eat your vegetables,” and one who loves theater and, before he went to graduate school, would break out with show tunes while he worked. The two grandmothers who take out their cellphones and show me pictures of their grandchildren. A nurse is on duty each day. I see one kind nurse kneeling down beside a frail resident, and hugging a grieving one, bringing healing not only with medicine but also by gently touching people who may no longer have anyone who touches them. Then there is the housekeeper who greets me every morning with the biggest, most welcoming smile. Another housekeeper, who when she learned my name is [name removed], turned off her sweeper, sat down beside me, and sang an old song to me: “Don’t Mess with [name removed].” She still sings snatches of it when we pass in the hall. The aides are friendly and helpful, and I appreciate the way they respond immediately to my call button, yet they sometimes seem intrusive. One unlocks my door and comes into my room in the middle of the night, which I think is invading my privacy. But she explains that she wants to be sure I am in my bed and not on the floor, and I remember the times I fell at night at home and wasn’t able to get up or to reach the phone to call for help. And I change my tune and thank her for checking on me. Other aides help me get into the shower, which I never thought I could tolerate. But as they do so they talk to me about their families or their pets or their second jobs, and soon it is friends who are helping me, not strangers. I love the people here. St. Mary has come to have the feel of a large family, with family members I look forward to seeing every day. If I had my “druthers,” as people say, I would still be at home with [name removed] beside me. But since that isn’t possible, I am perfectly content to be where I am. I thank God every day for my new home. [name removed] is a retired United Church of Christ minister. In addition to serving churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio, he worked for the Peace Corps in Ethiopia and Swaziland. He is the author of several books, the most recent being Major McKinley: [name removed] and the Civil War and Thinking Through the Children’s Sermon.

The facility is very clean and comfortable with some nice cozy spots on the main floor. It has a beautiful chapel where mass is said 6 days a week. A library with a good assortment of topics. The staff is always pleasant and helpful. I am happy to have made my decision to live there.

The dining staff is so accommodating and kind and based on the experience we have had with St. Mary of the Woods, I would definitely recommend them to other families!

This is a great place to be in for your later years.

Very nice facility with amenities, but was not staffed to support memory issues of resident, which is needed in our situation.