First resident in the

by Jazz Clark

When the new Extended Care Unit at War Memorial Hospital received their very first patient, the face was a familiar one.

Turning around to welcome her, staff saw Julia Hovermale, who had lived in the white house by the entrance to the new hospital for the last 34 years.

So, it was like Hovermale was home again, said Michelle Buhrman, her granddaughter,
“The view she has from her window now is the same view she saw from her porch all those years,” said Buhrman. “It’s very weird she ended up back there.”

An attending nurse even remarked that though it was a different building, Hovermale was in the same bed where her mother had spent five years.

Julia Hovermale has been on the waiting list for the Extended Care Unit for a long time, having suffered with dementia for six years, Buhrman said.

Though she can’t communicate as well as she used to, she seems to have perked up and some days she seems to recognize Buhrman.

All in all, they both approve of the facility.

“I’ve never seen a nursing home so wonderful, and the nurses are amazing,” Buhrman said. “I’m so happy that she gets to experience this, even in her later stages of dementia.”