"The whole nursing home field has been medically focused," says Greiner (at Grace). "We forgot the social, emotional and spiritual."   

(Keith Philpot)

January 13, 2003

Kids and seniors make a joyful noise at Don Greiner's newfangled nursing home.

At most nursing homes, the prevailing sound is morose silence. But at Grace Living Center in Jenks, Okla., the first thing a visitor hears is the mingled voices of the very old and the very young. At 9:30 one morning, Leona Alsip, 89, is among the dozen aged adults reading to an equal number of kids in the cafeteria. "Five bunnies got on the bus," she begins, as Chloe, 5, listens raptly. "Four bunnies got on the bus. Three butterflies got on the bus . . . Two bugs. . . ."

"And one bee!" Chloe chimes in. If Grace has the feel of a kindergarten, that's because it's a nursing home and a kindergarten -- and a pre-school -- where 140 residents (average age, 85) read, play and commune with 60 4- and 5-year-olds from the local school district. Owner Don Greiner, a Harvard MBA and ex-ad exec who followed his father into the elder-care business, claims it's the only facility of its kind in the nation.

"Families are tortured at the idea of putting someone in a nursing home," says Greiner, 38, a married father of three. "When they walk in here, they're relieved." Adds Jenks assistant schools superintendent Diane Bosworth: "It's one of those rare experiences where everyone wins." After Greiner bought the facility in 1998, he spent $500,000 on renovations. Today it boasts a playground, an ice cream parlor, a beauty salon -- and kids, kids, kids. The residents aren't the only ones who benefit. "I've helped the children build log cabins out of milk cartons," says Alsip, a widowed grandmother of 9. "Their eyes just sparkle."

As do Alsip's, proving Greiner's thesis: "You can have a nursing home that strives for the absence of pain, but that isn't enough. There needs to be the presence of joy."