Valentines for assisted living residents: Love beyond the box

Is there a better time to show love than on Valentine’s Day? The Graggs don’t think so. 

This Valentine’s Day, seniors caught the love bug when long-time StreetWise volunteer Kerry and her son Dade hand-delivered stuffed animals and cards with Bible verses on them directly to their assisted living facility.

Kerry wanted to do something special for the facility that has shown love to and cared for her parents and, through Streetwise’s provision, she was able to.

“We started with Enrich Living [the memory care center]; it’s dear to my heart because they took really good care of my mom and now my dad. I wasn’t sure of what the response would be… I had already been reminding myself that these residents had Alzheimer’s and dementia.”

Despite her initial uncertainty, the recipients warmly welcomed their new fuzzy friends.

“There were these women who just started downright giggling because they were so cute! They would grab onto them, hug them and say thank you. It was the coolest experience!” Kerry said. 

“At first, they were a bit hesitant, but as they saw us going around with the grocery cart, they realized there weren’t any strings attached. We told them, we just want you to know that you’re loved.”

Kerry and her son also gave gifts to the other areas of the facility, such as assisted living, rehab and skilled nursing.

Their experience has affirmed Kerry’s view of what the Christian life should look like.

“If we’re showing the love of Jesus, people need to ask themselves, why are they doing this? As Christians, that’s the life we’re supposed to walk, and that’s what I want to see more of.”

If the feedback she had already received wasn’t encouraging enough, Kerry even had people express their gratitude after they returned home.

“I had one lady who wanted to know our address because she wanted to thank us directly. It was really neat to be able to do that – they just raved about how special we’d made them feel,” she said. “We got an email from them recently thanking us for making their residents feel so loved and happy.”

But Kerry wanted to give back to the ones who make magic for the residents every day by providing them with something special too.

“Next, I thought, I need to be able to hand them out to the workers. I got a little nervous because I didn’t know what the numbers [of gifts] were going to be like, but I knew the Lord would provide. And He did!” Kerry said. 

“It was like the fish and loaves; the stuffed animals somehow kept multiplying! And we made sure to give them each a card, which all had assorted love-related Bible verses on them.”

Kerry and her son were able to provide these gifts because of the resources given by Streetwise. But Streetwise looks after their clients throughout the whole year, not just Valentine’s Day,

Anyone that we serve, we help them as a whole. Whatever we have that we can provide for a client or a non-client, we will provide something whether it’s a basic physical need or in this case, an emotional need,” she said.

“People sometimes don’t even realize they have that emotional need. We don’t just hand out the food, close the door and send them off – we want people to know that they’re cared for. We just happen to have food to provide for your physical needs.”

Streetwise’s priority is that their clients have been cared for as Christ would take care of them.

“Through the market at StreetWise, we get to see where clients’ needs are and what they’re walking through; it’s a very relational thing,” Kerry said. “We meet different needs at Streetwise, but it’s really our relationship with them that ends up showing the most love and meeting a greater need than anything physical could supply.”