{"id":6749,"date":"2015-05-26T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T14:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=6749"},"modified":"2015-05-26T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T14:03:07","slug":"grandfathers-wish-inspires-farm-like-assisted-living-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/05\/grandfathers-wish-inspires-farm-like-assisted-living-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Grandfather’s wish inspires farm-like assisted living home"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heartland\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Heartland Assisted Living, between Joliet and Roberts, is also a working farm.<\/p><\/div>\n

ROBERTS\u2014John Dubsky decided to switch careers when it was time to move his grandparents from their ranch in Northern California to an assisted-living home.<\/p>\n

That was in 2011. Dubsky, then a general contractor living between Joliet and Roberts, went to California to join other family members in helping their grandparents make the move. Dubsky remembered raising horses and breaking colts on his grandparents\u2019 ranch, near Sonora, and he understood his grandfather\u2019s reluctance to leave the place.<\/p>\n

When they got to the assisted-living home, Dubsky recalled, his grandfather said, \u201cthis will be the death of me here. You expect me to move off my ranch and move into this?\u201d<\/p>\n

His grandfather also suggested that Dubsky, with his contracting experience, should be able to build him a place where he could be taken care of but still have a dog and be around other animals.<\/p>\n

Dubsky said he thought to himself, \u201cMaybe he\u2019s right. He can\u2019t be the only person who thinks like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubsky was also motivated by having had an up-close look at nursing homes and assisted living homes during his years as a contractor. He said he built or remodeled more than a few such facilities, and in almost every case he was disappointed with what he saw, unhappy with the lack of personalized care and the institutional feel of the places.<\/p>\n

His girlfriend, now his fianc\u00e9, Genovive Kitilla, a certified nursing assistant with years of experience working with elderly and disabled people, shared his disenchantment with traditional nursing homes. They talked off and on about what Dubsky\u2019s grandfather had said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I came home and said, \u2018Babe, you can do that,\u201d Kitilla said.<\/p>\n

\"Couple\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Genovive Kitilla and John Dubsky, who plan to marry this fall, opened Heartland Assisted Living in 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

And that was that. Dubsky bought the property across Highway 212 from his house, six miles southwest of Joliet, and began building an assisted-living facility, simultaneously studying to obtain his certification in health administration. He said he sold most of his possessions to finance the project. The final phase was paid for by the sale of his Dodge diesel truck.<\/p>\n

Early in 2013, he and Kitilla opened Heartland Assisted Living, which sits on a 13-acre working farm where Dubsky raises hogs, horses, chickens, ducks and geese. Most of his clients live with pets and all of them are invited to feed the farm animals, gather eggs or work in a small garden.<\/p>\n

That explains Heartland\u2019s slogan\u2014\u201cAssisted Living on a Working Farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Dubsky\u2019s grandfather died two months before Heartland opened. And his 100-year-old grandmother, he said, broke a hip and was deemed too frail to move all the way to Montana.<\/p>\n

But as the CEO of Heartland\u2014and the maintenance man, head chef and care assistant\u2014Dubsky is proud to be offering to other senior citizens the kind of lifestyle his grandfather envisioned for himself.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cThey\u2019re paying to be taken care of,\u201d Dubsky said. \u201cAnd by golly, they\u2019re going to be taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents are encouraged to bring their dogs and cats with him, he said, and \u201cI had one fella from Roundup, he even had his horse here.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are eight rooms, two of them for couples, and a big room that includes the kitchen and dining area, a living room and a sitting room around a fireplace. Dubsky built a fishing pond out front, with a picnic area on an island accessible by a bridge. There is also a lap pool, and most of the rooms have decks; all of them have private satellite television.<\/p>\n

Residents can cook for themselves, but prepared meals are always available and are made from scratch. Dubsky does most of the cooking himself.<\/p>\n

\"Woehst\"<\/a>

Margaret Woehst<\/p><\/div>\n

Margaret Woehst, a 91-year-old Georgian who moved to the area to be close to her daughter, tried another home first but told her daughter she had to get out, mostly because she felt trapped. She\u2019s been at Heartland since the summer of 2013 and said \u201cit\u2019s entirely different. I come and go as I please.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re agreeable,\u201d she said of Dubsky and his staff. \u201cIf there\u2019s something I particularly like to eat, they\u2019ll make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubsky chuckled and added, \u201cAnd if we don\u2019t know how to make it, she\u2019ll tell us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to custom-cooking, Dubsky said he is willing to build to suit the needs of his residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI customize these rooms for the people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt might cost me 5- or 600 bucks, but it makes them happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than anything, he said, he offers his residents independence, \u201cthe most freedom allowable by law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another resident, 81-year-old Joe Saatzer, moved into Heartland 2\u00bd years ago, in a wheelchair he expected to use for the rest of his life. But Dubsky said he could see that Saatzer had muscle mass on his legs, so he started working with him, massaging his legs and encouraging him to stand and gradually put more weight on his legs. He now gets around in a walker and thinks he might dispense with that someday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the hospital they said, \u2018You\u2019ll never walk again.\u2019 Hell, I proved \u2019em wrong,\u201d Saatzer said.<\/p>\n

\"Hogs\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Dubsky scratches an ear on one of his hogs. They eat some of the pork at Heartland and donate some to needy senior citizens in Stillwater and Carbon counties through the Heartland Foundation.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dubsky encourages his workers\u2014there is a farm hand and three nursing assistants besides Kitilla\u2014to simply spend time with the residents, talking and getting to know them. He said he also takes them to the pig races at the nearby Bear Creek Saloon, and sometimes he\u2019ll spend the day fishing with them at the Cooney Reservoir.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it,\u201d Kitilla said. \u201cI love it every day. We do it with love, with all the strength we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dubsky and Kitilla met years ago at the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale. Kitilla, originally from Tanzania, was living in Palm Springs, Calif., and was visiting friends in Columbus, who took her to the sale. Dubsky was there with friends, too, and he and Kitilla clicked as soon as they met.<\/p>\n

Each of them had a son from a previous relationship and they now live with the boys, 7 and 8, in an apartment at Heartland. Dubsky and Kitilla finally got engaged a few weeks ago and are hoping to get married this fall. They are also thinking of building a cabin on some land they own nearby, just to be able to get away sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been going at it seven days a week since this place opened,\u201d Dubsky said.<\/p>\n

He has been approached by people interested in buying Heartland, or in helping him expand. Dubsky said he could imagine opening one more, smaller facility on some land he owns in Columbus, but for now he thinks Heartland is a good size.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to hurt what Heartland is now,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can help 10 people at a time, that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also good for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s a lot harder work than contracting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a lot more rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROBERTS\u2014John Dubsky decided to switch careers when it was time to move his grandparents from their ranch in Northern California to an assisted-living home. That was in 2011. Dubsky, then a general contractor living between Joliet and Roberts, went to California to join other family members in helping their grandparents make the move. Dubsky remembered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2540,2541,2538,2536,2537,1281,2539,1558],"class_list":["post-6749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","tag-bear-creel-saloon","tag-cooney-reservoir","tag-genovive-kitilla","tag-heartland-assisted-living","tag-john-dubsky","tag-joliet","tag-miles-city-bucking-horse-sale","tag-roberts","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}