At age three, Annie was everyone’s darling, an outgoing little girl who amused the elderly clients at the fledgling day care facility with her songs, dances and endless chatter. As the daughter of a staff person at the center, she often came to visit. She was uninhibited, would hop onto the laps of clients in wheelchairs and ask for a ride around the room.
One of the clients named Stan was prone to grand mal seizures. They would rip through him like a hurricane and leave him sleeping for the rest of the day. Everyone knew his signs of the impending seizure, but usually it was difficult to find a way to stop them from developing. One day, Annie too noticed these signs were beginning. She jumped onto Stan's lap and hugged him tightly. Incredibly the symptoms stopped, and Stan was spared the seizure.
Sr. Edna Lonergan, a Sister of Saint Francis of Assisi, witnessed that priceless moment and was inspired by Annie: “I decided that if I ever built a new center, it was going to be intergenerational.”
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