Reading Emergency Unit brings elderly ‘home for the holidays’

Home City News Reading Emergency Unit brings elderly ‘home for the holidays’

Every Christmas, up to 10 nursing-home-bound residents make their way to a real home to celebrate the holiday in a relaxed, homey environment with those who love them, thanks to Reading Emergency Unit’s Home for the Holidays Program.

The program, which has been around for almost 15 years, offers this service on both Thanksgiving and Christmas for free to residents. Employees volunteer their time, assisting in particular residents who can’t travel in normal automobiles.

Laura Glei-dietz, has used this service to bring her husband’s grandfather Williard Milliman home two Thanksgivings in a row.

“His wife had passed away the September before, so it was the first holiday without the spouse, and that would have been an extra hurt for the holidays,” Glei-dietz said. “It’s such an awesome service. For them to do it for no charge, and on a holiday when they could be somewhere else instead, is incredible.”

Three years ago, Milliman was able to stand and get in a car, causing no problems for the holidays. However, now that Milliman is 93 years old and can no longer stand, transferring him is impossible in a regular vehicle, Glei-dietz said.

“Without this service, he wouldn’t have been able to get here. You just don’t want to ask people you don’t know to do something like that on a holiday. We would have had to go do Thanksgiving there — it wouldn’t have happened,” Glei-dietz said.

Once the resident is dropped off, an employee provides his cell phone number and tells the resident to call when he is ready to go back, usually several hours later in the day. The employees get paid double to work on a holiday, but the hours are taken on a volunteer basis, and the unit has never had any trouble finding enough volunteers.

Employee Floyd Allion, who has been with the company since 1985, just started working during Home for the Holidays a couple years ago.

“It’s more important to the individual who’s in the nursing home to be able to have the whole family there and sit down at a meal and enjoy the company. It should be enjoyable, and an important part of their life,” Allion said.

Sometimes, the work hardly detracts from his own plans. One of the clients he transports goes to the same house to celebrate Thanksgiving that Allion and his wife go to, so he simply picks the client up on the way and then stays for dinner as well.

Another client asked to go to Morenci, about 30 miles from Hillsdale. Although the service usually only allows residents to go to homes in Hillsdale, Allion’s wife had an aunt in Morenci, so he offered to drive the resident so he and his wife could visit with her aunt.

“My wife and I took food along for a meal and went down there, delivered the client, gave her my phone number, and said when she’s ready to go home let me know. We spent several hours with the aunt and had a nice lunch. We killed two birds with one stone,” Allion said.

Jack Randall, REU Historian, was one of the founders.

“At the time, I was the director, and it was just our opportunity to give back to the community and get some people home so they could spend the holidays with their families,” Randall said. “We really enjoy doing it, and it just amazes me the emotion that it brings out in some people the first time they call and find out that it’s available.”

The hardest aspect has been advertising the service. Randall and his team put out flyers and brochures at nursing homes as well as advertised via radio and newspaper.

“The first couple years we didn’t have much response, but now we usually keep our drivers pretty busy on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Randall said.

Glei-dietz, Allion, Randall, and Ward are unaware of other emergency units that offer this service in southern Michigan.