Latta woman accused of stealing $34,000 from Florence nursing home resident while acting as their conservator

by: Dennis Bright

FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) — A 64-year-old Dillon County woman is accused of stealing more than $34,000 from a Florence nursing home resident while acting as their conservator and power of attorney, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office.

Delores Ann Edge of Latta is accused of one count of exploitation of a vulnerable adult and one count of breach of trust with fraudulent intent, with a value of $10,000 or more. She was booked into the Florence County Detention Center on Wednesday.

“Investigators determined that Edge, while acting as the victim’s conservator and power of attorney, knowingly and willfully engaged in improper, unlawful, and unauthorized use of the victim’s assets and property,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release. “The investigation further established that Edge expended approximately $34,071.98 of the victim’s funds for her own personal benefit without lawful authority or permission to do so.”

The alleged exploitation occurred between April 23, 2024, and Feb. 6, the attorney general’s office said. At the time, the victim was a resident at Veterans Village Nursing Home in Florence.

The attorney general’s Vulnerable Adults and Medicaid Provider Fraud unit, known as VAMPF, investigated the case along with the Florence County Sheriff’s Office. The Dillon County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the arrest of Edge.

If convicted, Edge faces up to five years in prison and a fine of not more than $5,000, or both, for the exploitation charge, the attorney general’s office said. The breach of trust charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison or a fine at the discretion of the court.

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Latta woman accused of stealing $34,000 from Florence nursing home resident while acting as their conservator 

Jefferson City woman charged with elder exploitation in Cole County

by Max Quinn

A warrant was issued Thursday for a Jefferson City woman accused of financially exploiting a nursing home resident, according to court documents.

Amy Shoup is charged with financial exploitation of an elderly or disabled person and misappropriation of funds of an elderly nursing home resident.

She allegedly spent $52,494.91 of the victim's money between Aug. 26, 2024, and June 1 while the victim was living in a nursing home, according to a probable cause statement.

Shoup held durable power of attorney over the victim and was in charge of paying for the victim's nursing home bills, according to the statement.

The nursing home the victim lived in was sold in November 2025. Shoup owed the old company $67,000 and the new one $16,000, according to the statement.

Only sporadic attempts have been made to pay those balances, according to court documents.

The victim said Shoup was not permitted to use their money for anything except for their care. The victim has not seen their debit card nor identification card since they were admitted into the home, according to the probable cause statement.

Shoup admitted to investigators that she had not paid the nursing home bills despite paying her own bills with the victims' funds, according to the probable cause statemnet.

Shoup has a $50,000 surety bond and a warrant out for her arrest. 

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 Jefferson City woman charged with elder exploitation in Cole County

Nursing home resident details nightmarish conditions

From complaints about being forced to lay in their own feces to serious medical mistakes, our I-Team investigation finds concerning conditions at Safire Care Rehabilitation Center in South Buffalo

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Nursing home resident details nightmarish conditions 

Delco women charged in financial exploitation of Montgomery Township nursing home resident, police say

Investigators said the victim, 79, was persuaded to hand over his debit card, which was then allegedly used for unauthorized withdrawals by Myria Sharon Freeman and Jennifer Lynn Patterson, of Chester 

by Fideri News Network Staff

Police news.

Investigators said the victim, 79, was persuaded to hand over his debit card, which was then allegedly used for unauthorized withdrawals by Myria Sharon Freeman and Jennifer Lynn Patterson, of Chester

A Delaware County woman is facing multiple felony charges after police said she conspired with a nurse’s aide to steal money from a 79-year-old resident of a Montgomery Township nursing home late last year.

Myria Sharon Freeman, 23, of the 1100 block of Highland Avenue in Chester, was charged by Montgomery Township Police with felony counts of forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, identity theft, and conspiracy to commit identity theft, two counts of misdemeanor access device fraud, and misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to commit fraud, theft, conspiracy to commit theft, and financial exploitation of an older adult or care-dependent person, according to charging documents.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, the victim told investigators that on Nov. 29, 2024, Jennifer Lynn Patterson, 38, of the 1400 block of Congress Street, Chester, a nurse’s aide at the Montgomeryville Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, approached him in his room asking for money. Patterson claimed she had three children and needed $100 to get her cellphone reactivated, police said.

The victim, who said he normally never lends out his bank cards, agreed to help Patterson and gave her his Citizens Bank debit card and PIN, instructing her to withdraw $100 and return the card, according to the affidavit.

Patterson allegedly made the $100 withdrawal but never returned with the card, police said. The victim later contacted Citizens Bank and learned that in addition to the agreed-upon withdrawal, two more transactions — one for $400 and another for $100 — had been made without his permission, police said.

Detectives said surveillance video confirmed Patterson completed the first withdrawal at a Wawa store in Middletown Township, Delaware County. The subsequent transactions, investigators said, were carried out by Freeman at Wawa in Radnor Township, using the victim’s debit card.

Video allegedly showed Freeman driving up in her red Volkswagen Jetta and conducting the ATM withdrawals while looking at her phone.

Police said the total loss from the unauthorized transactions was $500 beyond what the victim had consented to. Citizens Bank canceled the card and opened a fraud investigation.

Patterson, who allegedly initiated the scheme, is listed as a co-defendant in the case. A summons was issued to Freeman on Sept. 3, according to court records. No bail or arraignment information is available.

A preliminary hearing for Freeman is scheduled before Magisterial District Judge Andrea Duffy in Montgomery County on Dec. 2.

All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records. 

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Delco women charged in financial exploitation of Montgomery Township nursing home resident, police say 

Nursing home resident, advocate in Massachusetts experiences staffing shortage first-hand

by  Kathy Curran

Click to Watch Video

BRAINTREE, Mass. — Penny Shaw was in pain as she lay helpless in her bed at Braintree Manor Nursing Home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She became so desperate she even called Braintree Police.

"I was screaming, get me out of here, get me out of here, I was in terrible pain," she said. "And they didn't come for me."

Shaw, 77, suffers from quadriparesis and needs total care. She is also a national advocate for nursing home residents who were named earlier this month to the White House's Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes.

"I can't lay in bed for hours and hours in pain like that," she said. "We need a quality, safe, respectful, individualized care, person centric care, all care."

Her complaints about the care at Braintree Manor filed with the Department of Public Health put the spotlight on several issues also playing out nationwide. She said in her complaints that:

• staffing shortages were impacting basic care, including that aides did not have enough time to give her a weekly shower
• one morning, there were only two certified nursing assistants for 39 residents
• She was stuck in bed for hours and had missed breakfast several times
• there was not always enough personal protective equipment
• on one day, a COVID-positive resident was wandering around without a mask and entering other people's rooms.

"We need to have adequate staff. We need to keep people separate the physical distancing," she said. "We need to have infection control procedures."

Braintree Manor Healthcare 

 

The staffing issues in Braintree Manor Healthcare were cited repeatedly in a 2019 inspection of the home that found actual harm-investigators discovered residents were being improperly restrained because there weren't enough staff to supervise them.

Toby Edelman with the Center for Medicare Advocacy says staffing shortages and improper infection control had a devastating impact in facilities across the country.

"Having not enough staff is the most serious problem. And it made the pandemic much worse," she said.

Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, said low staffing and poor infection control has been an issue in nursing homes for years.

 

In Massachusetts, nursing homes were hit especially hard. Sixty-two percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state were in long term care facilities, according to state data.

"Nursing homes were not prepared for this pandemic. They didn't have enough staff. They did not have proper infection control practices for a very, very long time. And so when this pandemic hit, they were they did not know what to do," Edelman said.

Next Step Healthcare, the company that owns Braintree Manor Healthcare, said in a statement that ample personal protective equipment has been secured and is available, and the home passed its most recent on-site audit with a perfect score.

"The safety of our residents and employees is of the utmost importance, and this is at the center of all decisions we make," the company statement said.

Shaw said she wants her speaking out and serving on the White House panel to be a wake-up call for nursing homes everywhere.

"I would say the hope with this project is to save lives today as soon as possible and in the future," she said.

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Nursing home resident, advocate in Massachusetts experiences staffing shortage first-hand

Lawyer Taken to Task for Seeking to Represent Both Conservatee and Would-Be Conservator

The lawyer on appeal for a woman who wants to be appointed as her husband’s conservator, in place of his daughter by a first marriage, has been derided by Div. Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal based on his effort to become, additionally, lawyer for the conservatee.

Justice William W. Bedsworth wrote the unpublished opinion in each of two cases, filed Tuesday, dealing with the conservatorship of Edward Raymond who, since January 2016, has been in need of care.

In Conservatorship of Raymond, G056805, Orange Superior Court Judge Jacki C. Brown’s order appointing Raymond’s daughter, Darlene Azar, as the conservator was affirmed. In that case, Laguna Beach attorney James G. LeBloch contested the appointment of Azar over his client, Dawna Ludwig—and also argued that he, not then-Deputy Public Defender Jon Feldon (now a private practitioner), should have been appointed by Brown as attorney for Raymond.

At the May 3, 2016 hearing at which Feldon was designated as the attorney for Raymond, LeBloch represented that he had drafted Raymond’s estate plan and, accordingly, was still his attorney.

In Azar v. Ludwig, G057920, the appeals court affirmed Orange Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Bauer’s order disqualifying LeBloch from representing Ludwig in an action brought against her by Azar, in part on behalf of her father and his estate, alleging elder abuse and fraud. The complaint accuses Ludwig, 69, of fraudulently inducing Raymond, 84, into marrying her.

No Standing

Bedsworth wrote in Conservatorship of Raymond: 

“To the extent LeBloch is appealing on his own behalf—which appears to be the case—the appeal is dismissed. LeBloch is not a party to this proceeding, and he has no standing to appeal on his own behalf. He also does not represent the conservatee, Raymond, so he has no authority to speak for Raymond. The obvious conflict of interest represented by his current representation of one of the adversarial parties—Ludwig—would also militate against his appointment as Raymond’s attorney, even if we could consider such a thing.”

His purported appeal was dismissed.

Evidentiary Support

The decision to appoint Azar as conservator for her father, who is in a nursing home, was found to be supported by the evidence. The justice said:

“In this case, the court had plenty of evidence to support its choice of Azar over Ludwig as Raymond’s conservator. The court alluded to this evidence in the statement of decision: Ludwig’s refusal to listen to healthcare providers, her obvious financial motivation for seeking to care for Raymond at home, her disregard of others’ needs and her self-absorption. Even if Raymond could have been safely cared for at home, Ludwig was not the person to be entrusted with this task.”

Bedsworth remarked in a footnote:

“Ludwig rather unwisely characterizes the epic as a ‘Cinderella type story,’ a conflict between a stepmother and a stepdaughter. Apparently Ludwig has forgotten that in the Cinderella story, the stepmother is the villain.”

Incongruous Positions

Addressing the disqualification order, appealed in Azar v. Ludwig, Bedsworth declared: 

“Attorney LeBloch appears not to appreciate the incongruity of his position in each of the two appeals decided today. If he had prevailed in the conservatorship appeal, he would be representing the conservatee, Raymond. If he had prevailed in this appeal, he would be representing Ludwig, who is being sued by, among others, Raymond’s person and estate. His inability to see the conflict in these two positions is perhaps the best reason of all for refusing to allow him to participate in either proceeding.”

Although barred from representing Ludwig in the Superior Court, LeBloch was her attorney in both appeals decided on Thursday. Azar made no appearance in the case in which her appointment was challenged; she was represented by Jonathan L. Gerber and Nicole M. Peterson of the Irvine firm of Miller Miller Gerber in the appeal from the order disqualifying LeBloch.

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Lawyer Taken to Task forSeeking to Represent Both Conservatee and Would-Be Conservator

Nursing home resident: 'I feel as though I am in #DeathCamp2020'

By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken

(CNN)When news broke months ago about the country's first coronavirus outbreak at a nursing home, Linda Mayberry immediately recognized the home's corporate logo as it flashed across her television screen. It was the same one emblazoned throughout the long-term care facility where she lived. 

Her nursing home, she realized, was owned by the same company struggling to curtail a rising death toll in Kirkland, Washington. Mayberry began to dread what would happen if coronavirus swept through her building. 

 

Soon after this discovery, her facility in Bellflower, California, instituted a lockdown in March, barring all visitors to try to keep the disease out. Mayberry spent her days alone in her room. 

 

Before the pandemic, she passed the time watching hours of classic movies, but now, as the black and white films played in the background, she scoured the internet for news about what was happening in the outside world. 

 

Mayberry, a film buff, shared this photo watching TV from her bed in her California nursing home.

 

At first, few local governments released information about how Covid-19 was ravaging the vulnerable populations residing in nursing homes. But as data started coming out, Mayberry saw that the deaths in other facilities were skyrocketing. 

 

And then, in mid-April, she said she learned from staff that a resident somewhere in the building had tested positive for the disease. 

 

Since the early days of the pandemic, nursing homes have been hit particularly hard -- grappling with supply shortages and accounting for tens of thousands of deaths. But it is difficult to know what is actually happening inside these facilities, as measures aimed at protecting residents from the spread of the disease have left them even more vulnerable and closed off from the public.  

They have been locked away from friends and family, routine government inspections have been severely limited due to the virus and some employees fear retaliation for raising concerns. It is even more rare to hear from the residents themselves -- since many suffer from dementia and other debilitating conditions or don't have an outlet to share their stories. 

 

Mayberry, now 66, said she felt that local government officials weren't doing enough to protect residents in nursing homes. She knew many of her fellow residents didn't have the ability to speak out. But she had an iPad and a Twitter account, so she began sending dispatches from the inside of her room and hoped that someone would see them. 

 

"As a nursing home resident, I feel as though I am in #DeathCamp2020 and we just got our first #COVID19 case 2 days ago," she wrote on April 12. "No testing for staff or patients. Please help us."

***

 

Mayberry has been sharing her experience as a resident at Bel Tooren Villa Convalescent Hospital through Twitter. 

 

Mayberry never envisioned spending the early years of her retirement in a nursing home. 

 

She had a nearly 40-year career at a local school district working as a computer technician and retired in 2015, only to develop a dangerous skin infection, she said. Then, she said she suffered a broken leg and shattered ankle from a fall during her recovery. The injuries ultimately left her bedridden as she attempted to find a way to pay for the surgery she would need. She was single with no kids, and her brother lived hundreds of miles away in Oregon. Because she needed full-time care, Mayberry resorted to becoming a paying patient at the nursing home, Bel Tooren Villa Convalescent Hospital, owned by the national chain Life Care Centers of America. 

 

She had a surgery scheduled for the end of March that she hoped would finally enable her to move back into the home she owns in Long Beach, only around 15 minutes from her facility. 

 

But then, coronavirus hit. 

 

Mayberry has always been outspoken. In earlier years, she wrote letters to the editor of her local newspaper, opposing the renaming of her childhood park and criticizing the "stock" obituary of a local woman and classic film actress, saying she deserved much better. And she was already active on Twitter before the pandemic, criticizing President Donald Trump and sharing her love of old cinema with her modest list of 200-something followers, which includes a small stable of movie buffs.

 

Linda Mayberry

The official Twitter account for the Los Angeles City Attorney became a follower more recently, after Mayberry saw a tweet about a price gouging investigation and responded with a photo of the same bottle of hand sanitizer being sold for $80 that still had its $1.99 price tag. 

 

Now, as she learned from several of the nurses taking care of her that a growing number of employees and fellow residents were also testing positive for the virus, she said she made it her mission to draw attention to people like her, who are stuck in nursing homes where the coronavirus is spreading.

 

In some cases, she replied directly to tweets from government officials and journalists. In others, she simply offered dispatches of what her life was like, detailing the outrage and frustration she was feeling. She didn't know if anyone was seeing them, but it made her feel like she was doing something.

 

"I could scream to the four walls here, but they don't listen very well," she said. 

 

It is bad enough that I haven’t been tested since there is a positive #COVID19 case in my nursing home. But not to test the staff is bordering on Criminal Negligence. https://t.co/ofdyI9gTht

— Linda (@Neurosturgeon) April 21, 2020

Mayberry tweeted about how she spent weeks asking to be tested -- and how it finally happened last month.

 

A nurse showed up in her room in protective gear several days after her 66th birthday to deliver the news. She was positive for the virus and needed to be moved to the isolation unit -- which Mayberry described as starting with a hallway of the facility blocked off by a thick layer of plastic that hung from the ceiling to floor but growing to take over a large part of the building.

 

A snapshot from inside Mayberry's room in the facility's makeshift isolation unit.

 

"Keeping the sick here and not testing the staff was a recipe for disaster," she told CNN in late May. "I am really pissed off. This didn't have to happen."

 

When staff at her nursing home discovered that she had been publicly voicing concerns about the situation, she said she was "grilled by a corporate bigwig." A Life Care spokesman told CNN that residents are free to speak with reporters and that it would never punish someone for doing so. The company will speak to residents concerned about their care to try to resolve any issues, he added. Mayberry said she told them her anger was mainly directed at the Department of Public Health in Los Angeles County, where her facility is located, for failing to ensure that all employees were tested for coronavirus until recently.

 

Thank you. Tested positive on May 15, so I am hoping I don’t get any worse. The isolation within a locked down facility is crazy. It took me a month after the first positive case to get sick. 41 positive here. I hear only 8 patients don’t have it. The Health Dept. Is to blame.

— Linda (@Neurosturgeon) May 22, 2020

The first positive case had been confirmed well into the facility's lockdown so Mayberry was convinced that a staff member had unknowingly brought it to the facility. And as they went room to room treating patients like her, she worried they continued to spread it.

 

The spokesman for Life Care said it was first notified of a positive case at Bel Tooren on April 10 and acknowledged that "testing has been constrained, and has taken longer than we'd have liked" -- noting that testing for the facility has been coordinated through the county health department. 

 

"They have made the decisions on when and who will be tested in our facility," he said. "Our preference would have been to test both residents and staff sooner."

 

What is your rationale for not testing the staffs at nursing homes, since there are so many dying but have no outside contact? Asymptomatic infection seems to be the cause. This seems like criminal negligence. https://t.co/DlDD2Bk7WF

— Linda (@Neurosturgeon) April 17, 2020

At first, the only personal possessions that were brought to the makeshift isolation unit for her were her iPad and iPhone. Her new room still had the belongings of someone else, she said, including fake flowers and a dresser full of items that she was afraid to touch. 

 

She said her temperature became slightly elevated and she noticed that her oxygen levels were lower than usual when she checked them herself using a pulse oximeter, but otherwise she said she was mainly asymptomatic. 

 

Soon after receiving her diagnosis, she began railing against people she believed were being irresponsible and spreading the virus, using the hashtag #Covidiots.

 

According to Mayberry, she wasn't given a shower in more than a month, and that was the last day she was helped out of bed until recently. She was given a "bed bath" in mid-May, but claims that was only because she requested it for her birthday. 

 

"It's been a little bit uncomfortable, but I understand they're just really, really shorthanded," she said, adding that many of the nurses have become like family to her. "You feel sort of guilty that they're giving up so much to work here ... this isn't a job I would wish on anyone and they do it with kindness."

 

Signs in the windows of Bel Tooren express gratitude for nursing home employees during the pandemic.

 

After CNN contacted the facility spokesman for comment, Mayberry said she was retested and given a shower and moved from isolation -- suggesting that her test result came back negative for coronavirus this time. 

 

Her biggest fear is that employees -- some of whom she said are older than she is -- will stop coming to work entirely, as she has read about happening at other nursing homes. 

 

"I am afraid that I am going to be ignored to death here," she said.

 

I am in a nursing home and we have been so short-handed, RN’s have had to do diaper changes because each CNA had 25 patients. Just know that the patients love you for what you are doing. And congratulations.

— Linda (@Neurosturgeon) May 28, 2020

The Life Care spokesman said he could not comment on specific patients due to privacy laws, but that "normal routines for patient care have been adjusted, particularly for those patients who have tested positive." He said the facility is starting to see residents recover from the virus, and that when someone is listed as recovered, they are moved into a new wing of the nursing home -- apart from those residents who are positive or negative.  

He said that for the safety of staff, and since many rooms do not have private showers, some residents are given sponge baths two to three times per week. 

 

"We recognize this has been a difficult time for residents, their families, and our staff," he said. "Our staff have endured much and are truly heroic for their efforts to stay and care for their patients, even while they are at risk for contracting the virus." 

 

‘The biggest problems at nursing homes include three clearly identifiable deficiencies: not enough testing, not enough protective gear, and not enough workers.”

As a nursing home resident. I agree. Please save us. https://t.co/zLO23olbaZ

— Linda (@Neurosturgeon) May 3, 2020

Other than the bits of information she is able to glean from her caregivers, she said residents are not given any detailed updates on Covid-19 cases, so she regularly checks the data posted by the state to try to find out what is happening in her own building. 

 

More than 50 residents at Bel Tooren have contracted coronavirus. 

 

Before she was moved to isolation, and then to a different room, she was able to listen for sirens, knowing that an ambulance would likely be called if someone had died. But lately she said she has been too far away to hear anything. 

 

As of May 29, Bel Tooren Villa Convalescent Hospital has reported 61 resident cases and 16 staff cases, according to the facility. 

 

Twelve of Mayberry's fellow residents have died.

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Nursing home resident: 'I feel as though I am in #DeathCamp2020'

Keokuk woman sentenced to probation in theft case

Laura Hawkins

QUINCY -- A Keokuk, Iowa, woman must pay $18,000 in restitution for stealing from an elderly family member living in a Quincy nursing home.

Laura Hawkins, 56, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Charles Burch in Adams County Circuit Court to 30 months of second-chance probation, a form of probation where a conviction will be removed from a person's record if probation is successfully completed. The terms were agreed to by Assistant State's Attorney Anita Rodriguez and Hawkins' attorney, Curtis Dial.

A hearing was expected to Wednesday to review restitution, but both sides agreed to the $18,000 in restitution. The probation will end early if Hawkins pays the restitution, and Burch agreed to let her transfer probation to Iowa.

Hawkins was found guilty of theft in a stipulated bench trial last month before Burch. Two counts of financial exploitation of the elderly were dismissed.

After Hawkins' arrest in February 2016, the Quincy Police Department said it was notified by Sycamore Healthcare of a 77-year-old resident who was possibly being exploited by a family member with power of attorney for the resident. An investigation found that several thousand dollars had been misused.

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Keokuk woman sentenced to probation in theft case

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Keokuk woman convicted of theft from elderly relative

Keokuk woman convicted on theft charge

Keokuk woman convicted of theft from elderly relative

Laura Hawkins

QUINCY -- A Keokuk, Iowa, woman was convicted of a theft charge Wednesday stemming from allegations that she stole from an elderly family member living in a Quincy nursing home.

Court records show that Laura Hawkins, 56, was found guilty in a bench trial before Judge Charles Burch after she waived her right to a jury trial.

Hawkins was initially charged with two counts of financial exploitation of the elderly, but those charges were dismissed Wednesday.

After Hawkins' arrest in February 2016, the Quincy Police Department said it was notified by Sycamore Healthcare of a 77-year-old resident who was possibly being exploited by a family member acting as a power of attorney for the resident. An investigation found that several thousand dollars allegedly had been misused.

Sentencing in the case was set for Sept. 6. Hawkins could be sentenced to two to five years in prison. She is eligible for probation.

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Keokuk woman convicted of theft from elderly relative

Nursing Home Resident Says She’s Sad Because Her Hands Are Ugly, So Worker Takes Action

 For some reason in America, people think that getting older isn’t attractive. But the truth is that people age like fine wine. Although older people’s skin might not be as elastic as younger people’s, beauty is so much more than how we look on the outside. And it took one nursing home worker named Brandalyn Mae Porter to show us that. Because the features we dislike about ourselves truly do not determine our worth or beauty. And Brandalyn, who spends a lot of her time with elderly people in a Texas nursing home, is not afraid to remind her elders about this fact. Every time she does, they thank her for the reminder…

Because Brandalyn works with elderly people, she knows that a lot of them are not confident about how they look. Because society has taught us to turn to plastic surgery and other procedures as we age, many people do not feel as beautiful as they should.

Because Brandalyn is a creative young woman, she often looks for fun and engaging ways to interact with the nursing home residents. One day she was painting a new resident’s nails. And the elderly woman opened up to Brandalyn about her insecurities.

Brandalyn shared her uplifting experience on the Love What Matters Facebook page:

“Today I painted a new residents nails at work and as we were going over colors, she mentioned she wanted clear. The only thought that came to my mind was ‘CLEAR?! That’s no fun.’ I asked her why she wanted clear and she said, ‘My hands are ugly, I don’t want to draw attention to them.’

“I then carefully responded with, ‘Your hands tell the story of your life. They tell the story of love, of care and adventure. These hands have touched and held things that most people can only wish to one day.’ And with that, she went with the color pink for her nails. Sometimes what we are so insecure with, others find beauty in.”

Not only did Brandalyn help this resident see herself as beautiful again, she reminded her that her hands show a lifetime of experience. This is something young people often envy and desire for themselves. But unless they’ve gone through the life and have those hands, they’ve yet to earn that experience.

The young nursing home worker’s Facebook post got a lot of attention. Many people have come forward to share their love for what Brandalyn is doing for her residents.

Trish Kristan Ricker wrote, “I love this. Hands do tell the life story. One my most treasured pictures is my mom’s hands and my baby’s hands together. My baby was two months old and my mom was 71, dying from pancreatic cancer. This is one of the few pictures I have of that time.”

Kati Marie Phillips wrote the following about her family: “It was amazing to introduce my daughters to my great grandmother Midge and just sitting with her hearing all her life stories fills my heart I love older people they are so full of knowledge and wisdom.”

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Nursing Home Resident Says She’s Sad Because Her Hands Are Ugly, So Worker Takes Action