We are celebrating National Assisted Living Week! Our team at The Huntington Assisted Living will provide plenty of “Joyful Moments” for our Residents. A few residents wanted to share their experiences about what is like to move into and live at The Huntington, which is located in Newport News, Virginia. Its “yard” is the Mariners’ Museum Park.
The Huntington offers 32 private apartments with kitchenettes. The dining room provides breakfast, lunch and dinner service, and the activity director makes sure the social calendar is always full. A nursing team is available 24/7 to provide peace of mind and assist our Residents.
Loving life
Karen Waldfogel moved into The Huntington about two years ago. She recovered from an injury at The Newport Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which is next door, and it became clear she needed more care than her support team at home could provide.
“I wanted to go home, but I can’t. I like it here,” she says.
She says the Huntington team is excellent, caring and considerate. The food “is coming along” and is usually tasty. She really likes the lasagna and pizza.
“(Activity Director) April is good to us, she always finds something fun for us to do,” she says. “If we didn’t have April, we wouldn’t know what to do.”
Karen enjoys the arts and crafts sessions with volunteers Martha and Jerry Dodson once a month.
She also has had a great experience with the VHS Rehabilitation therapists onsite.
“They’re just super,” she says. “I can get around pretty good now.”
The camaraderie with the fellow Huntington residents is genuine.
“I’ve made a lot of friends here,” she says, including her best friend who resides at The Newport.
Family life
Karen moved here with her family in 1965 when her father was transferred to NASA Langley in Hampton from Houston. He worked on the Galileo program, which explored Jupiter and its moons. He previously worked for Boeing and the family bounced from their native home of Lansing, Michigan, to various places including Seattle, California and Alabama.
“He was an amazing man,” she says. He passed away last year. She has a brother who lives with their 91-year-old mother nearby. Her mother was a nurse and she has two brothers and two sisters.
“My mom picks me up to go to church on Saturdays,” she says, when community rates of COVID-19 are lower. They attend Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Karen has a daughter and three grandsons. She had a son who has passed away.
A room of one’s own
Marjorie Barnes was admitted after an injury for skilled rehabilitation at The Newport Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in 2018. She moved into the attached Huntington to continue her rehab.
While she has been debating moving back to her home with her daughter, she loves her privacy and living space at The Huntington.
“Gotta hang on to something that’s mine,” she says of not being ready to sell her house to her daughter yet. She adds, “I just want my kids to live their lives.”
She enjoys her friends at The Huntington and the food. “I love the soup,” she says.
“I’ve been in Newport News for quite a while now,” she says. She and her husband moved to the area when he was transferred by the Army to Fort Eustis. He spent most of his career there, save for about two years the family moved to the base in the Azores.
“It was really nice,” she says. Most of her children – there were five kids – were school age while in the Azores. “The children really enjoyed it.”
She has several grandchildren – “too many to remember.”
“All of my children are so nice to me,” she says.
Call our home your home
Learn more about our community and schedule a tour by visiting vahs.com/thehuntington or call 757-933-2621 for information on services, rates and availability. Our website has floor plans and details about our community.
