Financial pain goes
beyond big business

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Over a five year period, Cynthia Owen and Carolyn Harsh opened their country home to a steady parade of senior citizens. Nineteen elders benefited from the tender care provide by the women and their staff at A-Rainbow Ridge Elder Care Home during the last years and months of the residents' lives.

Evelyn Carlson spent her final five years there, dealing with a heart ailment, Alzheimer’s disease and finally, a broken leg. Her relatives said she was never happier.

"They bought a dog because Evelyn loved dogs," said Evelyn's sister-in-law, Marge Carlson, "and so they bought a dog for her."

"The puppy would be constantly in her lap and she would be petting the puppy," said Evelyn's brother and former Elgin mayor Eric Carlson, "and at mealtime, she would sit down at the table in the dining area there with them."

"And she'd slip the dog food," added Marge, her husband laughing heartily at her side.

That kind of loving care extended to the death bed, as well. Peter Neuman's mother, Claudette Neuman lived at A-Rainbow Ridge for five months before her death last October.

"My mother passed," Neuman said. "We were all around her in her last hour."

"Many of us had our hands on her whatever leg or arm that we were closest to," said Harsh.

"We're trying to keep Peter as close to us as we can," said Owen, "because he's devastated because he's losing his mom."

Home owners, staff members and Neuman prayed recited scripture and sang hymns. Claudette Neuman passed away quietly and peacefully, as everyone in the room cried and hugged each other.

With care like that, you would think A-Rainbow Ridge would have no problem keeping its six state-licensed beds full. When the last resident passed away last October, though, the phone was strangely silent.

"Just all of a sudden, when our last three elders passed, it was like, we had no elders," said Owen. "I didn't worry about it. It's like, 'Well, it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay.' And then as the weeks went by and the weeks went by, it was not going to be okay."

The women blame the economy. People, they speculate, who in better financial times would have placed aging and extremely ill relatives in such a facility, now hesitate, wondering if they will still have the job they need to afford the expense six months from now. So, they hunker down and just do the best they can with their relatives at home.

With no end to the sour economy in sight, though, Owen and Harsh refuse to quit. Owen has experience in construction and she says she will tap that ability if she has to.

"I will work part time, whatever I have to do," she said, "to keep the mortgage paid here and to keep this house waiting until we get elders in it. I'm not giving up."

Owen has not only a financial investment in the outcome, but an emotional one, as well. She is a survivor of abuse as a child, she tells us, and from the age of seven, she has dreamed of one day opening a large ranch to serve children and aging seniors in a common setting. A little economic downturn, she promises, will be no match for her determination.

Relatives of seniors who could benefit from her care and the staff members she and Harsh had to lay off right before Christmas, hope she is right.