‘We have the responsibility for these people, and we like to keep them happy and in a comfortable environment.’
There is just enough space in LaVonne and Tom Gray’s office for a desk, a file cabinet, a countertop copying machine and two chairs. It is cozy enough for two people, but becomes downright crowded with three. Yet, this cubbyhole is the nerve center of Green Manor, a 150-unit, high-rise retirement home in Mission Hills.
From their ground floor office and their adjacent apartment, LaVonne, 55, and Tom, 58, are on call 24 hours a day for more than 180 senior citizens.
In search of warmer climate, the Grays moved to California from Sioux City, Iowa. Their background in the motel business landed them work as assistant managers at a retirement home in Burbank. They came to Green Manor in November and have just celebrated their first year in the retirement-home managing business. Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed them, and Barbara Martin photographed them.
LaVonne : I’m the manager. Tom’s the building superintendent. We live here and we take turns with another couple. We are on duty 24 hours a day. I rent the apartments as they become available and take care of any problems the residents might have.
They have emergency buttons in their apartments, and we assist them immediately. If one of these buttons goes off, which they could at anytime, first of all we see which apartment it is, then Tom takes the oxygen tank which we have underneath the desk and he’s ready to go. We have what we call confidential sheets, they have all the information about our residents. I find out who’s in that apartment and I tell Tom on the walkie-talkie before he gets there, ‘She’s a heart patient,’ or ‘She’s in a wheel chair’. We get the paramedics to come if that’s what they need.
The best part of my work is visiting with the people. When that door opens, the people feel free to come in and talk. Maybe I don’t always have the time to chat with them, but I always make the time.
Tom : There’s nothing I don’t like about it. I make sure everything is functioning, everything is ready for a new tenant to move into. (Right now) I’ve got three apartments to paint and clean up. I do just general maintenance all the way through. Right now we’re trimming trees.
LaVonne : We cannot get personally involved. Because if we got personal with one person, we’d have to get personal with 150 people. You can’t spread yourself that thin. But, like I say, anybody who comes by here wants to talk. They may be looking at the four walls all day long . . . I’ve got the time to listen to them.
Tom : You have to have a broad mind and broad shoulders.
LaVonne : To me it’s a special gift that I’ve been given. I just think that it’s a neat place to work. Actually, we’re working with the people here. We’re not above them, we work with them all the time and it really works well. And yet it’s business. You keep it on a business level. We have the responsibility for these people and we like to keep them happy and in a comfortable environment. I’m going to be there one of these days, and I hope there’s somebody to care for me.
Tom : If I can help these people here, I hope someday somebody can help me.
LaVonne : Tom and I are very loving people, I guess, and we show that about each other when we’re out and about. Like, if we’re outside, maybe I’m holding his hand, and the residents see this and they’ll say, “Well, you’re the cutest couple. You’re just really neat. You love each other, we can see that.” And maybe we portray that. If we argue, we argue in our own apartment.
It is a happy place. It was hard because when we came from where we were before, we were very attached to the people, the same as we are here. You get to know them, what their likes and dislikes are and it gets like a family because you are together many hours a day. You see each other day after day. So, we hated to leave there, but we came down here and it just seemed like everything fell into place.
We hope this is our building for quite a while.
