Caring for Mother Becomes New Career Lancaster Sunday News 2-17-08 A family crisis a labor of love By Paula Wolf Sunday News Staff Writer pwolf@lnpnews.com Bill Boyd firmly subscribes to the belief that "God works in mysterious ways." Borne out of a desire to help his mother, Boyd's midlife career switch from full-time real-estate investor to personal-care-home administrator has been a true blessing, he said -- not just for her but for him. It's allowed Boyd to find his true calling at the age of 53. Since June, he has been the owner and administrator of Brereton Manor, a 24-room personal-care home in Washington Boro that's one of the oldest in the county. And his mother, a resident there after a bad experience at another facility, is now thriving. Boyd's 81-year-old mother, Ronnie, was originally placed in a Harrisburg personal-care home because he and his five siblings couldn't find a slot for her in Lancaster County, he said. They visited their mom regularly in Harrisburg, and the family soon discovered that she was being neglected, he said. Their father, John, moved in with her, and he too started to decline, Boyd said. "The care was substandard, the diet was really substandard," he said. His mother didn't even have space to walk around in her room and get exercise, Boyd said. And the stench was so bad, he said, he could hardly stand it. A licensed funeral director who used to work full time for Kearney Snyder Funeral Home, Boyd said his sense of smell is poor because of long exposure to formaldehyde. So for him to be that affected by an odor, he said, it has to be pretty awful. The experience spurred Boyd to action. "I felt my only options were to build [a personal-care home] or to buy one," he said. Real-estate projects were nothing new to Boyd, who had been an investor in the field for decades. His company, Boyd Enterprises, buys and rehabs homes in Lancaster city and the Penn Manor and Hempfield school districts. He specializes in renting the properties to tenants who eventually buy them, he said. Because he couldn't find a partner in constructing a personal-care home, he decided to try purchasing one. Through his real estate agent, Boyd found out that the owner of Brereton Manor, Joan Berdiner, was looking for a buyer. After that, he said, "Everything fell into place." Berdiner started Brereton Manor in 1970. Today, there are 57 personal-care homes in Lancaster County, according to the state Department of Public Welfare, which regulates them. The smallest is Acadia II, with a capacity of five people, and the largest is Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement community, with a capacity of 287. Though she'd been approached by larger institutions, "I didn't want to sell to a nursing home," Berdiner said. "I wanted to sell it to someone who'd run it the way I did," she said. After signing a sales agreement last winter, Boyd moved his mother into Brereton Manor. In the year she's been there, the change is remarkable, he said. When she entered the Harrisburg facility, she was using a walker, Boyd said. Over the four months she was there, her condition deteriorated so fast that she ended up in a wheelchair. But now his mom is back to walking on her own. "She's doing fabulous," her son said. His father died five weeks after moving to Brereton Manor, Boyd said. For years, his dad was in hospice care after being told he had just five months to live. But he kept holding on, out of concern for his wife, Boyd said. "He was not willing to die before he knew she was OK," he said. "He was determined to see she was well taken care of." Boyd has been owner/administrator of Brereton Manor for about eight months, taking over when the state approved the sale. The home, along Anchor Road, sits on 6_ acres. One of the first things Boyd did was add walking trails with benches, so residents could enjoy the countryside -- not to mention the two miniature horses permanently housed there. He also bought a new 15-passenger bus with wheelchair lift, replacing the old one. Brereton Manor is licensed by the state to house up to 35 people, but Boyd said he wants to keep the maximum to 24, with each person having a private room. Berdiner also is staying on for a while to help Boyd with the transition. "I like to think of her as my mentor," he said. Boyd said he still does some real-estate investing, with money from that going toward Brereton Manor. But he loves his new career, and wouldn't go back. "It's a perfect fit for me," Boyd said. "I always wondered what I'd be when I grew up. I think I found it." Real-estate investor buys personal-care home to provide his mom with a decent place to live. Home | Contact & Directions Website design by Ian Schaefer