Whether you call it serendipity, fortuitous circumstance or some higher directive, things couldn’t have worked out better here on Cape Cod for elderly Sisters of the Good Shepherd in need of fulltime nursing care.
The road to EPOCH Senior Healthcare of Harwich began in 1991.
Sister Rose (Aureen Rose Behrend) is a sprightly, sneakered 67-year-old who disdains the title of Mother Superior in favor of “coordinator.” A native of Connecticut, she trained as a CNA and has taken a course in gerontology at Cape Cod Community College.
Sister Rose was there at the beginning and, summarizing, here’s the story:
The New York Province of this international order founded in France in the early 19th Century actually covers several states in this region. They had established a retirement home and infirmary for elderly members in Marlborough, but sustaining the health care aspect became too much of a financial burden. Those sisters requiring medical care at first were sent to a nursing home in Boston, but when that facility changed its focus to short-term care, the Order was given two weeks to find a new refuge for 36 elderly nuns in need of 24-hour care.
The solution was found in Harwich. Mark Tobin had recently opened a nursing home then known as Cranberry Pointe. Struggling to get established, he had beds to fill and those that were occupied were taken by mostly private-pay clients. There was pressure from the state to build up his census of Medicare and Medicaid patients.
“We had 36 sisters who needed long-term care and this was the only one with enough beds,” Sister Rose recalled. “If we hadn’t been able to come here, I don’t know what we’d have done.”
“The nuns are coming,” was a welcome cry among Cranberry Pointe staffers who frankly had been concerned about their jobs.
“Mr. Tobin promised us he would make this facility a home,” Sister Rose said. And, according to all reports he, and the new owners, EPOCH, who took over two years ago, have lived up to that pledge.
In 1992, a staff of four nuns, including Sister Rose, moved here to establish a small mini-convent in a former bed and breakfast on Bank Street in Harwichport to provide pastoral care for the sisters in the nursing home. They support themselves by selling altar breads to local churches, Sister Rose says, but she has to admit that “we’re not able to do our own baking any more.”
Pastoral care for the nuns is provided in the EPOCH chapel by deacons from St. Pius X in Yarmouth.
The last of the original 36 nuns passed away two years ago at the age of 104. There currently are 12 in residence, which has been about the average census. Since all qualify for Medicare and/or Medicaid, “we pay our way,” Sister Rose points out, “and we take our turn on the waiting list just like everyone else.”
This continuing relationship has been a two-way street. According to EPOCH Director of Admissions Deborah Kerr, the sisters are a positive group to have around “and they also add an extra level of reassurance” when families come to visit to see if this is the place for their loved ones.
Finally, there’s this word from Sister Lena Gabrielle Millette, 81 years old and still rooting her Red Sox home every summer. “I’ve been here four years and this place is the best. Well, the convent is best…but this is next.”