Whispering Willow Assisted Living and Memory Wing

04/12/2025

🐱 Yesterday we celebrated National Pet Day with the staff showing off all of their pets! 🐶

04/07/2025

🌟 Staff Spotlight 🌟

April finds our facility celebrating our Resident Assistant Jennifer Hoffman, who has been with Whispering Willow for 8 years. Jennifer has worked in the healthcare field for 20 years and loves caring for the elderly. When asked what her favorite part of working in our Memory Wing is, Jennifer states that “every day is a new day.” The most rewarding part of her work here is the relationships she gets to form with both tenants and their family members.

In her free time Jennifer enjoys spending time with family and friends, going to the movies, and learning to cook. Something most people don’t know about Jen is that she has started three kitchen fires in her quest to learn to cook… thankfully cooking is not part of her duties at our facility!

Dolly Parton is one famous person Jen would love to have dinner with as she is inspired by her movies and especially loves her song “Coat of Many Colors.” Jen loves the series Yellowstone and cowboys in general. If Jennifer was asked for advice to give someone coming into the Resident Assistant role, it would be to work on your patience and take lots of deep breaths. Jen feels that talking to residents and asking them questions is the best way to build relationships with them and their families. One thing that Jennifer would like people to know about working with seniors is that they will always tell you the truth, good or bad. Join us in celebrating this loyal employee!

04/03/2025

🌟Resident Spotlight🌟

For this month’s resident spotlight, we are pleased to celebrate Ilene Weikert who has been a tenant at our community for a little over three years. Ilene is 91 years old and hails from Horton, Iowa, where she was part of a family of 10 children. Ilene was a devoted housewife and mother to five children; when her last child graduated from high school, Ilene had an exciting second chapter of driving semi-truck with her husband for 16 years. Ilene is a proud grandmother to 20 grandchildren and over 40 great grandchildren!

One thing people may be surprised to learn about Ilene is that she played softball with her daughters for about 20 years. One thing that would not surprise most people who know her, is that her favorite book is the Bible. Ilene was a talented seamstress who made custom patterns for competition rodeo shirts and had many other talents, including playing the piano and singing hymns with her girls.

If Ilene could give one piece of advice to the younger generations, it would be “Just try. You’ll never know what you can achieve if you believe you can do it!” Ilene has fond memories of a dog named Will C. who she was lucky enough to call her friend as well as her pet. Nowadays Ilene spends most of her time doing word puzzles and reading the Good Book. Ilene has no fear of dying as she is looking very much forward to seeing the beauty of Heaven; she says she has waited her entire life for this trip and cannot wait until the day she gets to go. Let’s show this lovely lady some love!

03/20/2025

🌟 Staff Spotlight🌟

This month’s employee Spotlight features Sabrina Felts, Resident Assistant. Sabrina entered the healthcare field at 18 years old, following in the family tradition of her mother, sisters and mother-in-law who all have worked as aides. Her favorite part of working at Whispering Willow is seeing residents laughing and smiling and hearing the stories of their lives. The most challenging part of her position here is when residents begin to decline and see them missing their families. One thing she wishes people knew about her job is that it’s not easy, a lot goes into it, and that assistants sometimes must be witness to some very hard things.

Sabrina loves reading, watching movies and TV; some of her favorites are To Catch a Firefly, Crybaby and Bob’s Burgers. A fun fact about Sabrina is that she was named after a character on the TV series Bewitched! When Sabrina isn’t working, she loves hanging out with her significant other, sleeping, and playing with her dogs. If Sabrina could have dinner with any famous person, she would pick Betty White or Demi Lovato.

Some advice Sabrina would give to someone starting as a Resident Assistant is that this job is not for the weary, it can be very hard but is also very rewarding, to stick through it and to take care of your mental health so you can continue to care for others. If you see Sabrina at Whispering Willow, please let her know how much she is appreciated!

03/07/2025

🌟Resident Spotlight 🌟

Our monthly resident Spotlight feature is about Jannette Franzen, who has been a resident in our community since October 2023.

Jannette hails from Ionia and was one of six children in a family of German descent. Jannette married at 19 and had three children with her husband Harold. The Franzen family farmed and cared for horses and dairy cows, so Jannette is no stranger to hard work! If Jannette had the chance, she would love to ride a horse again. Jannette’s most memorable life moment was when she was very small and followed her father, unbeknownst to him, got her dress caught in a fence and was stuck there until her folks came looking for her.

When asked what advice she would give to younger generations, Jannette would advise to “listen to your folks and do what they tell you to do.” Jannette’s favorite dish is fried potatoes and anything that goes with it. Residing in the Whispering Willow community offers Jannette the opportunity to play Bingo, put together puzzles with her friends, and she says that one thing that makes her smile every day is everybody here at Whispering Willow. Jannette also loves Westerns, sitting outside if the weather is nice, and watching the birds that come to her feeder outside of her window.

Come say hi to Jannette and help give her one of those memorable smiles!

02/14/2025

❤️ Frosting Valentine's Day cookies! ❤️

02/12/2025

⭐️Resident Spotlight ⭐️

Idella Slick has been a resident of our facility for almost six years and has been a member of the Fredericksburg community for most of her life. Idella was born in Allsion, Iowa and graduated from Fredericksburg High School. Idella was united in marriage with Darwin Slick and they were blessed with three daughters and one son.

Idella has fond memories of riding her horse named Cindy with her husband and says that if she had the opportunity, she would love to go on a trail ride on horseback again. Idella was active in the Fredericksburg community for many years and many town residents recall her helping them at the hardware store.

Since Idella has moved to our facility, she has enjoyed working on puzzles with her friends in the activity room and she walks the halls daily for exercise. Idella is active in the local Baptist church and cherishes her ties with her church community.

When asked what she most enjoys about living in our assisted living community, Idella says that being able to see family and other friends and neighbors is a highlight. If Idella had any advice for younger generations, it would be “do the right thing.” If Idella could travel anywhere in the world she wanted, she would visit all the states in the U.S.

Our facility staff looks forward to many more years of seeing Idella’s big smile!

02/11/2025

⭐️ Staff Spotlight ⭐️

This month our Staff Spotlight features Resident Assistant Molly McMahon. Molly has been employed at our facility for four years and usually works the day shift in our Assisted Living.

Molly is a graduate of Tripoli Community High School and has attended some community college at Kirkwood. Molly has worked in several Assisted Living facilities before settling into our Assisted Living facility. Molly says seeing the residents happy is the most rewarding part of her job and Molly receives many compliments from residents on her work, especially in regards to her help with giving residents a relaxing whirlpool! If someone asks Molly what advice she would give to someone starting out in the assisted living field, she would advise them to know that residents always come first, that they should be treated with respect, and that if you get overwhelmed, you should take a break to regroup and try again later.

In her free time, Molly enjoys spending time with family and friends, doing jigsaw puzzles, being outside when it is warm, and binging on episodes of Friends or Criminal Minds. At work, Molly especially enjoys just being there for the residents and taking extra time to spend with them above and beyond the completion of the usual tasks and chores.

If you see Molly, please thank her for all the wonderful work she does for our facility!

01/01/2025

🎉Happy New Year from all of us at Whispering Willow Assisted Living & Memory Wing!🎉
Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year!

12/27/2024

Whispering Willow is starting a Resident Reflection of the month and to start it off for December we have Shirley! Shirley has been a part of our community since September 2020. Shirley also has her birthday this month to celebrate!

Shirley is from Janesville and used to work at Red Fox Hotel in Waverly as a janitor. She went on to marry her now late husband and had 6 children and 5 stepchildren. Shirley is most proud of her mother, father, and daughters in life, and thinking of her husband is something that makes her smile every day. Shirley used to have a dog named Zoey and loves to hold and cuddle the dogs that visit now! She used to enjoy playing hot dice, board games, and dancing; but, now enjoys word searches, spending time with grandchildren, and watching action and scary movies. Her favorite TV shows are Law & Order and Days of Our Lives because of the actors/actresses. A famous person that Shirley would like to meet is Bob Barker, “Because he is handsome.” And her dream destination is Switzerland, “Because it is beautiful and has lots of things to do.”

Some advice that Shirley would like to give the younger generations is, “go to school, and be there for your parents.”

What Shirley likes most about living in our community is the people, good food, activities, and visiting with her friends every day. One extra thing that Shirley would like to share is that she is clumsy!

Thank you, Shirley, for being such a fun resident here at Whispering Willow!

12/26/2024

Here at Whispering Willow, we are starting a "Staff Spotlight of the Month"! Our first staff member is Dominique, “Dom”, he is a Resident Assistant and has been with us for 8 months. His main responsibility is providing high quality care to our residents.

Dom graduated high school in 2019, then went on to Hawkeye Community College where he graduated with his Medical Assistant diploma in 2021. Dom says that his grandparents are what led him to work in this setting. His family inspires him the most in his daily work and that makes him want to push and better himself.

His favorite part of working with our residents is making them smile and feel important. He states that the most rewarding part of his job is knowing that he can make a difference in the residents’ lives. Dom shared that his most memorable moment while working with our community is being able to make an impact on the resident and their families lives.

Dom finds it most challenging in this role to figure out what exactly the resident wants and needs are. He overcomes these challenges by listening and getting to know the residents better.
A piece of advice that Dom has for someone just starting in this field is to take it one step at a time and have patience. Something that he also wishes for people to know is that working in this type of setting is more than just a job. Dom’s advice for helping to build relationships with resident’s and their families is by interacting and getting to know them more and more every day. Dom enjoys the teamwork the most working in this community.

In his free time, Dom enjoys spending time with his family and friends. Some of his hobbies are hunting, fishing, drawing/painting, and spending time with his animals. A favorite TV series of his is Outer Banks and Grey’s Anatomy. A fun fact that most people don’t know about Dom is that he has had his adenoids removed twice!

12/25/2024