Interview with Emerald Gardens Retirement Residence management, Peter Edwards

Because I like to talk a lot, I think this job inherently lends itself to that, just because we have approximately 120 people living here, and I get to chat most of the day. I can walk around and talk to different residents about all sorts of things, their lives, their lives, what they did years ago, and where they’re from. So that’s probably one of the main reasons why I like this job at Emerald Gardens.

I come from a background in hospitality in hotel and restaurants. So this is kind of what this building is. We have condominiums, we have rental apartments, and then we have a dining room.

The things that most people don’t like but I seem to enjoy are building maintenance, getting into what makes the building run, and simple things. I just got back from outside shoveling, so I like that kind of stuff. It keeps something different all the time. 

It was a bit of an accident. I’m not from Grande Prairie. My wife took a job at Weyerhaeuser as part of a project. She’s in procurement, so we then followed her out here, and it was just very good timing. If you believe in that, the stars sort of all aligned, and it was perfect timing. I guess perfect person, perfect timing, perfect place, and it just was great for me. I’ve been at Emerald Gardens just over a year. I started in September, and it’s been spectacular.

What makes Emerald Gardens unique is the fact that you can live in an apartment independently, and we have home care 24 hours a day here. When you rent one of our apartments, and we have different sizes and levels, the big thing is that you can come in as a completely independent person with no assistance at all.

As time goes on, if you need a little bit of help, something as simple as going in for some surgery, and you need just a little bit of assistance, because we work for Alberta Health Services as home care, we can then provide those services to you as needed.

We also have residents who need more assistance, and we can start that right away. So, we’re not long-term care, and yet we’re not just an independent community. We actually get accused of that, of doing too much. In our building, because we have a full-time staff of healthcare aides, if you’re not there because you’ve gone out shopping, they will check back on you later. We’re always around, and there’s somebody around to help you at all times. 

We’re kind of that first line of defense. You can choose to use Emerald Gardens' care as much as possible.

We have a good relationship with Grande Prairie. Some of our residents have cars, so they’re out doing things, some of them still volunteer, and we do have a few residents who actually still have jobs and go to work every day. This building is so close to Walmart and all the different little shopping areas, grocery stores. So our residents are always out in the community doing something. That’s the key at Emerald Gardens. Most of our residents stay quite active and busy.

Because we’re independent living, most things are run by our residents. We have a resident council. We have a condo board. One of the things that is very unique is that they run their own bingos. We have an onsite gym. We have a decent library. We also have a large pool table area, but everything is run by residents, although we try to help. If we can facilitate getting things going and running things, we do that.

Just recently, one of the residents, one of our long-term residents, passed away, and she was a big part of this place.  Somebody else said she used to organize the library. Is it okay if I go up there and organize the library? Then I said, "Absolutely." She literally put everything in alphabetical order, and we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of books, possibly even thousands, and it’s just something she enjoys doing. Everything at Emerald Gardens is run by our residents. I can’t stress that enough. So it’s that whole activity of the community doing things together. 

One of the best things is the more you do, the healthier you seem to be. We don’t specifically have a recreation department, so we don’t have people being forced into things.

The nice thing is that if you want to sit at the end of the hallway and read a book in the sunlight, that’s great. That’s what you do. Nobody’s forced into anything, and I think that’s a big deal.

We do have people who are super-private that don’t want to go out in public. They might just enjoy sitting quietly with people around them, but they don’t participate in anything.

We have bingo. There are avid bingo players here, but there are also people who don’t enjoy bingo. So nobody’s being forced to do anything. They sort of float into what they like. Same with even making friends. Everything’s natural. The flow is natural. People either become friends or aren’t, just like out in the big world. 

I actually asked a resident for advice lately, because I have a parent whom I would love to see move into a building like this. I’ve been hinting at her, "Maybe you should," and she’s very resistant to it. I actually asked a lady whom I would see out in the hallway all the time. My question to her was, "Do you regret coming here?" It was in the middle of a conversation. When I asked that question, she just stopped, and she looked at me, and she said, "Oh no, dear, I actually regret not coming here sooner."

At that point I said, "Oh, and why is that?"  And she said, "I had a big, beautiful home, a little bit outside of town, and I never left." She had a long driveway to plow. Her family would come and visit, but not very often. She said they almost felt guilty because every time they would come and visit her, they had something to do for her. There was always something she needed from them. 

When she got to Emerald Gardens, she said, "I don’t have to do most of those things. And now I can just enjoy hanging out." She’s one of the residents who are always having tea at the end of the hallway in the sun, hanging out. That kind of changed my mind too and thought, "Yeah, you’re right. It’s way better to do it sooner than later." 

Because we’re independent, most information is given directly to the resident. We do like to send out a newsletter. Internally, we post things as much as we can: anything that’s going on.

Of course, anything that’s happening, we want to post it, posters in the elevators. We also give out a monthly calendar, where we have a calendar that goes out and it shows what’s happening. Even though we don’t organize card games per se, we facilitate them, and we have them on a calendar where people know that they can go and meet at certain times in certain places. So we do try to encourage that at Emerald Gardens.

When it comes to families, we do have a mailing list that we email things out to, but some people don’t want families to have that, and some do. So we have to balance privacy and what we say. Most of the things we send out are pretty generic, like we’re doing a meet and greet or something along those lines. But because our residents are very social and independent here, they tend to do things themselves. They don’t necessarily always depend on a family member to do something for them. 

Before hospitality, I worked in long-term care when I was 20. That’s what I always knew. It was a very beautiful home, like our long-term care facility was very nice. But that’s what I sort of expected when I came here. That’s not what I got.

What we've got here is basically an apartment building with a little bit of help. We’re a nice apartment building where we have people who come and go. I was shocked to see how many residents at Emerald Gardens had cars, that they’re out in their cars and they’re taking off doing stuff. I was a little surprised by that, but that’s what we are. We’re independent. That’s what we cater to is that independent person.

We have a pretty decent menu that's structured in the fact that for a whole month we have a menu that’s set out, and then it comes out weekly so that our chef can basically change it as he sees fit. Sometimes, like anything, cooking at home can get repetitive, so he will change things to suit the needs of residents. Even here, we have people who love liver and onions. I do not like liver and onions, but we do a specialty night of liver and onions.

One of our chefs is Filipino, so she’ll do a Filipino night every once in a while. What I like about that idea is that they’re flexible and they will kind of cater to what the crowd likes.

I was a little shocked how many seniors liked the burger and fry day that they do, where they’ll do burgers and fries. It’s a very popular day. We also barbecue.

When it is nicer in the summer, we’ll do different barbecues. We'll do every last Sunday of every month, a large brunch, where we serve brunch and things of that nature. I am lucky that the ladies and gentlemen who work serving, our healthcare aides, and the people who work in the dining room, like to dress up periodically and run different events. They’ll just say, "Hey, can we do a Hawaiian day?" Absolutely, run it. So they come up with their own ideas too, which is fun.

I’m trying to lose weight, so my personal favorite is just salads. They’ll whip up salads for you, and they always put- if I want a different protein- they’ll ask what you want on it and stuff like that. So I’m pretty lucky that I hate making salads at home, and yet they’ll do it for me at Emerald Gardens anytime. 

I don’t think there will be a significant change. Maybe there’ll be some tweaking that might go on over time, but overall, I don’t want to say that this building is perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But I think the way it works here is phenomenal.

You don’t really want to mess with something that works well. I don’t think that’s in anybody’s best interest. But are we always open to new ideas? Absolutely. I think that’s the key to any business.

One thing we learned during COVID was the importance of Wi-Fi. I’m sure that as a different generation comes up, that will be more important than, say, television. I’m sure what happens with computers and technology will change things. We’re already moving in that direction. Obviously, I’m on here with you on Zoom, so I’m sure residents are already asking with their iPads, how can they talk with their loved ones with the internet?

We’re already seeing that, so I can’t imagine in 10 to 15 years, that’s probably what will be a significant change at Emerald Gardens is technology when it comes to how people communicate.

Ask questions. I think the nice thing is we’re not a big push to sell you anything. So you’re more than welcome to come and check the place out. You’re more than welcome to phone and ask a question, and don’t be afraid to call back and either ask the same question again or something you’ve remembered you wanted to ask.

Moving here is a big change of your life. It's maybe a challenge to think of paying rent again. So, financially, it's a change in everything you do. You want to make the right decision. Always ask questions.

We get residents that ask the question, then we’ll get the families that call and ask something similar. And we’re more than open. It’s not big-pressure sales at Emerald Gardens. We won’t be calling you back and chase you down. So you’re more than welcome to call anytime just to see, just for those fears of that. I think that’s the big deal.