Ogden Standard Examiner

          Farr West's New Private Care Home
             
                   MANAGING EDITOR
                                                                                  


          Mid-morning found 91 year old Betty Peterson playing the piano - playing a song she had never played before. She played "All I ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera while her nurse, Pam Hawkes, who is also the owner of Memory Lane Care Home looked on. Pam says Betty is doing better than when she first came just a few months ago. Pam says she wants her residents to feel at home, and encourages her family to associate with the residents of which Betty is the only one right now. There is room for two more. Memory Lane also offers respite care, and hospice care.
          Pam is originally for Up-State New York. She grew up on a large Dairy Farm near the small Town of Fort Plain. She and her first husband have five children. So, when her first husband passed away, she left New York and settled in Richmond, Utah for the benefit of her children. She was sealed in the LDS Temple to her deceased husband, and her children became her best friends. Three years ago, she found a new best friend whose wife had also passed away. Now they are married best friends, and use their home as a home for the elderly and the injured.
          Pam is a Registered Nurse and encourages other nurses to contact her about possible doing home care in their homes. Pam feels it is very rewarding career. Pam says that a doctor makes house visits to Betty here, and that Pam and her husband take Betty to church since they go to the same ward. Pam says that she grew up where she was the only one of her faith around her peers. So, she says that it "doesn't matter what religion you are, God listens." She says that when they lived in New York, she had her children at home, and the Amish nearby helped with the birth of her children.
          Memory Lane Care Home has a well manicured yard and fenced in the back yard with a pond and trees. Pam says that they have a "Back to Eden" Program where they try to help the residents feel comfortable as they do things similar to what the residents did when they were young. Betty enjoyed helping can beans this fall.

Memory Lane is located in Farr West and inquiries and visits are welcome for nurses, potential residents, and their families. Pam can be reached at telephone number 801-690-7158 or 435-881-2679