I got up early this morning to call and e-mail every newspaper I could find that serves the Bedford, Va. area. I have not heard back from a single one. When I worked in newspapers, we loved to get calls from the public, our best stories and tips come in that way.
Beleaguered modern papers do not permit direct calls, you have to fill out forms online and submit them after proving you are not a robot. And the slashed staffs are too busy to answer the phone or do much online reading. We’ll see.
There is a woman in her 80’s who lives in Cynthia Daniello’s Independent Living Complex in Bedford, Va. Cynthia is worried about her, she stays inside of her apartment most of the time, and her great joy in life was watching the Hummingbirds who come to her feeder.
The management of her facility has banned all bird feeders, declaring them “dirty,” and the woman has not been permitted to set up her feeder or her pretty little bird bath this Spring.
She cries a lot. At the same time, the company – Joseph’s Dream owned by Metropolitan Properties in Washington, North Carolina (I’ve sent them several messages online, they have not replied), has banned the small private gardens that the residents keep right outside of their apartments. Bird baths have been banned, and the residents can no longer plant anything of their own choosing and must destroy or remove all plants that are not in their beds.
The company says it will pay for plants and mulch and a newly formed Garden Club must weed, water and feed the books which must look tended and uniform. The goal, says management, is that all of the flower beds must look the same.
The residents are devastated and angry, but they also fear the management, which, they say, has warned them that troublemakers will be evicted, as will residents who disobey the new rules.
When I first talked with Cynthia Daniello, who is 84 and (who has just put up her new blog, The Never Ending Story, I sensed a person of strength and character and she has become the focal point of the resistance to the new rules. Every morning, her apartment is flooded with angry and frightened residents.
Cynthia, a poet and writer as well as an animal lover, wrote a poem about the struggle to keep their bird feeders and gardens, it was posted on a pole, the management took it own.
“Tis Spring- each little flower bed, Lies barren,
all the flowers dead. The birds are looking for their seed.
No woman’s hand provides their need.
Hummingbirds will soon arrive to find no feeders to survive,
Those who came here were deceived.
No blooms, no birds, no butterflies.
Just lonely, hollow tear-filled eyes.”
It breaks my heart and stuns me to think that any caring management would deny people the right to watch birds and feed them and plant the flowers they want in their own gardens.
I can’t imagine any moral justification for that kind of cruelty, and if work around the advanced elderly, you know that this is the worst kind of emotional harm.
You can contact Metropolitan Properties Inc by calling 252 946-0110 or writing them at P.O. Box 1706, Washington, N.C., 27889.
They own properties in Virginia, North Carolina, S. Carolina and Tennessee. You can visit the website of Joseph’s Way in Bedford, Va. here.
You can also e-mail Cynthia directly – [email protected], or [email protected].
To me, it personifies the insensitivity and mindless rule-making of the corporate world. If these people do this, they ought not to be permitted to care for the elderly, and I would certainly not want to place a parent there.
These kid of arbitrary and unfeeling rules come when companies think nobody is paying attention. Perhaps we can let them know that somebody is paying attention, and will keep on paying attention.
Joshua’s Dream is a low-income facility and the residents are very worried about being evicted. The are frightened angry, I am told. Some have emailed me asking for help.
I have been working with the elderly for years now, and I can testify that there is nothing more precious to them than living things, a powerful antidote to their feelings of being isolated and left behind. These are the voiceless and vulnerable, we need to speak on their behalf.
The residents at the Mansion dote on their flowers and plants, on their cat Summer, on Red and their two parakeets, and on the garden they laboriously tend and plant every Spring and Summer.
They love to see birds at feeders, and there is every kind of flower in their big garden. The loss of bird feeders and individual gardens is an awful blow to people in almost desperate need for meaning and color and life.
Cynthia has also been ordered not to feed or provide any kind of shelter to the feral cat she has been feeding for two years. The cat is 10 years old and Cynthia placed a heated cat cottage on my porch for her for two winters. “I cannot think of anything more cruel than to stop feeding her,” she says.
The cat has been registered with local animal control as a “community feral cat” so the company cannot get rid of her legally. Perhaps the idea is to starve her instead.
I am going to spend most of my day today contacting local news organizations and TV stations to see if I can’t make some noise for Cynthia and the residents. To me, this is an outrageous and insensitive abuse of power. I’ve tried to call the company headquarters several times but have gotten no reply.
If they go through with this cruel plan, I will certainly do what I know how to do, and that is raise some Hell. I suspect bad publicity is about the thing they might care about, since they are totally ignoring the almost unanimous feelings of the residents.
The company own a lot of independent living communities.
I hope we can put some heat on this company and reverse these heartless and block-headed regulations.
What is the worth of never seeing a bird outside your window if it gives you pleasure and meaning towards the end of your life, when you may need those things the most. What is the virtue of only having gardens that look exactly alike, and of depriving people of the creativity and joy of choosing and nurturing their own gardens?
This could be our mothers, our fathers. This could one day be us.
Individuality is not a luxury to be taken from the elderly on a corporate, assembly line whim. It is a fundamental and essential human right, a matter of health and dignity.
Please feel free to jump in. The company’s number is 252-946-0110.
I hope one of the residents gets hold of a good lawyer.
Someone living near has to Trap the cat and get the cat a home — and WHO is going to do that? Someone has to watch the trap and release an opossum or whatever goes into the trap instead of the cat and WHO is going to do that?
Heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking. Or, someone reading this nearby the facility in VA can feed the cat off the property but again takes MUCH TIME and Patience and well, just unfathomably heartbeaking as the cat will continue to come by for food not understanding. Would the local animal shelter help?
yes yes yes
I live in a condo complex; it’s not just for old people. We’re not supposed to have bird feeders either. They attract mice and chipmunks, field mice and other critters. Apparently they can get into a bldg through a hole the size of a dime. It’s a big nuisance to management to get rid of an infestation. Last year they were in the walls of my bldg. My neighbor and I caught a dozen mice. And feeding a feral cat only enables them to reproduce. Several years ago we had the cat problem because people let their pet cats run loose when they weren’t fixed. The management caught 30 some cats within a year or two. In a condo that I lived in, in another state, there were also feral cats. (Someone had moved and abandoned their pregnant cat). The cat got sick and we had groups of feral cats with weeping pus filled eyes sleeping around the grounds. When new kittens were brought by their mother out from the woods, they were already blind. This is a big nuisance issue for management — costly and time consuming. I don’t know what the answer is. I sympathize with the residents. But no “company” is going to take the time and energy and take on the costs of such issues. That is not the society in which we live, unfortunately. It is, indeed, very sad for the elderly who just want to take care of a creature.
Marcia, thanks for the good and useful information. The company here has not reported or claimed any such problems, especially from some beloved hummingbird feeders. We have bird feeders on the farm and have no such problems, nor have i heard them from any other people with feeders. I will certainly check into it, they have had feeders running for years at this facility I will ask about these problems, and thanks for your post.
This is in response to Marcias post. I have had a virtual bird sanctuary in my yard for forty years and never had a rodent problem. I always assumed it was because my cats would control that. Sadly both my cats died last year and I have not gotten new ones and still have no rodent problems. I have been called many things in my life, “cat lady”, is one of the kinder ones. I have trapped many feral cats in my time and they were all first taken to a vet and spayed or neutered and given shots before they were either rehomed or brought back to their original location because there was a dependable person to put out food for them. This can get to be very expensive and time consuming, of course, but with only one cat it could be much more easily handled and with all the exposure this situation is getting surely there would be enough people to chip in and donate for the cost. I can’t even imagine the stress this is causing for Cynthia who has cared for this little cat. I understand that these ideas were offered with good intent but I just can’t imagine good, caring people wouldn’t be able to work around any of these problems, if they even exist in this situation, were they really coming from the heart and understanding how important birds, a feral cat, and a garden is the residents here. This story broke my heart. I am a widow with some unresolved health issues that have caused mobility problems I never dreamed I’d deal with. Without my birds and bees and butterflies and flowers and countless other creatures I enjoy each day I don’t know where I would be emotionally. I am so hoping to hear good news about this situation being positively resolved for Cynthia and all her neighbors. ” Love conquers all” may be a tired cliche but it sure is true.
Thanks Wendy, I did some checking around after Marcia’s post, and I know a number of elder care facilities where Red and I have worked that encourage the residents to install bird feeders outside of their windows, they find it calming and therapeutic, and the residents love them. Jacob’s Dream prohibits feeders in the contract, but admit they haven’t enforced the ban, so the residents – some – have become very attached to their birds. Some species, like the hummingbirds, don’t eat seeds and pose no health threat. I think part of the problem isn’t just what was done, but the way it was done. There was no dialogue or warning, and no give or negotiating. I talked to both sides today, and urged everybody to back off and have a real dialogue with each other. We’ll see what happens. Thanks for the eloquent and powerful message, Wendy, it is good of you to share it with us, it is honest and full of feeling.
I’m so in awe of you. What you are doing with your gifts is inspiring but especially moving is your work with the elderly. Thank you.
Hi Jon – there is a columnist on the Roanoke Times staff that takes on stories like this. His name is Dan Casey. I copied a link to his column. https://www.roanoke.com/news/dan_casey/
The RT is a local newspaper that covers Bedford county as well as Roanoke city. Dan is a fighter against any sort of bureaucratic injustice. I read the paper on line for years and Dan’s column was one of my favorites. I can’t imagine that this story wouldn’t be of interest to him – it’s right up his alley.
Gail – your name is very close to Hope! How wonderful to have a lead, esp for someone who was in journalism. Just like the young people have to fight for safe schools, older people need to fight for dignity throughout life.
I’m only 65 and far more afraid of The System that makes a lot of money on elderly getting me than I am exiting stage left. And that is sad.
Thanks Gail, I’ve sent a bunch of messages to the Roanoke paper, but so far, have gotten no reply…I’m also writing to the owner of the residence, Joseph Moore, he is [email protected].
if the cat is a registered community cat then it would have to be neutered and vaccinated. I hope someone can sneak food to it late at night. Let it eat and remove the dish so nobody can see it. I do not understand why putting people in management positions suddenly makes them cruel automatons but it sure seems to.
Jon, As a resident of southwest Virginia and a long time reader of the Roanoke Times, I also sent your post to them and requested that they investigate this situation and consider writing a story about it. Gaile Hoppe’s contact with Dan Casey was an excellent action. So let’s hope that with several folks contacting them the Roanoke Times will act.
Thanks Kate, I should say that most, if not all of the residents I know about are either too infirm or too frightened to contact journalists by themselves. I am trying to do it, but any and all letters to anybody would be appreciated and helpful. I thank you greatly for caring and for writing. I’ve also got the e-mail of the company owner, he is [email protected] Joseph Moore.