In 1964, the Anna Maria of Aurora Nursing Home was just an old rest home that had a few extra rooms. In the 60 years since, Anna Maria has continued to be not just a nursing home but a continuing community of care and celebrated its 60th anniversary with an Open House last Thursday afternoon.
“We are in our fourth generation because our kids and I have worked here. I have been here for 22 years,” Co-Owner Aaron Baker told the Weekly Villager. “My wife, a dietician at the other building, who has been here for 20 years. My sister-in-law is the director of nursing at the Kensington building and Chris Norton’s sister works at the front desk so it is definitely a family thing.”
The Aurora retirement village welcomed several local businesses which are members of the Aurora, Solon, Chagrin and Twinsburg Chambers of Commerce to attend and mingle. In addition to local businesses celebrating Anna Maria’s storied success, it also opened a resident’s room for visiting families who may have been interested in having their family members move in.
Although located in Aurora, the organization welcomed residents from Cuyahoga, Geauga and Summit County as well, since the Campus resides on the border of four neighboring counties.
Anna Maria held its Open House in the Norwood “B” Wing of the campus, which was remodeled six months ago.
Marlys Balch, the resident who opened her room for viewings, has resided at Anna Maria for eight years and said that the time has flown by.
“My feeling is if you are going to go to this type of retirement village, then this is the place to be and it is great. It is absolutely great,” she said. “I have no complaints whatsoever.”
According to Baker, the organization has stayed in the family since Bob Norton, Sr. purchased the then-rest home in 1964. He soon involved his two sons, Robert and George in the organization and it has remained in the family ever since.
Baker, who previously worked for a Medicare HMO, was brought into the fold 22 years ago.
“The two uncles invited me to join the business 22 years ago,” he noted. “I went through an internship which took a year. I had to take some tests then I became an administrator 21 years ago and have been here ever since.”
Baker and his cousin, Chris, run the day-to-day operations as Co-Administrators but each member of their extended family has some sort of role in the family business.
Baker said that his family has taken great pride in keeping Anna Maria a family-run business for so long, especially in an age when bigger corporations are buying out family-owned retirement homes and villages.
“There are not many of us left that are family owned and operated,” he noted. “It is really one of the most important things and it is really about us being here every day. Not being a part of a chain is really important because you see the impact of your decisions, so it is our job to answer to our residents and families and our staff.”
Baker has enjoyed his transition to a family-owned business, saying that he enjoys working in a place where it feels like he is truly making a difference along with his colleagues who share that same vision.
Since becoming an administrator, Baker said that Anna Maria has not needed to make many physical changes to its campus but has made internal changes to keep up with the changing services of health care. He said that Anna Maria has contracted home care, physical therapy and speech therapy businesses in a third-party capacity to assist with the health care.
He acknowledged that the standards of assisted living have drastically changed since he first joined the industry.
“Today’s assisted living is like a nursing home was 10 or 15 years ago and in today’s nursing home, we are taking people who would have stayed in the hospital for another several days,” he said. “We have seen the level of care rise dramatically and the expectation of what we are able to do rise dramatically.”
Baker added that by being a family-owned business, Anna Maria has emphasized treating the staff as members of the family. He said that many staff members have served Anna Maria for several years and have grown within the organization.
