Invisible Touch

Invisible Touch

Chapter 9 ~ Granny Care

Ernie could feel a clock ticking. He hadn't yet proposed any projects for Mrs. Appleton's charity and he was eager to do so. On the one hand, he felt he owed it to her to begin making progress as soon as he could. And on the other hand, he wanted something to show his grandparents, to make them proud -- and they weren't getting any younger, after all.

He had seen the independent study in the course catalog and thought that would be an ideal way to get started. "Business Topics" was ordinarily reserved for juniors and seniors, and Ernie would need approval from the dean of the Business School in order to take it as a sophomore. Once Ernie explained what he was planning to work on -- a project for a charitable organization -- the dean was all for it.

His proposal to the dean was as broad as the mission of the Appleton Charitable Trust itself. He had written that he wished to design a program that would "foster understanding between generations while practicing sound business principles."

Ernie was excited, but a bit anxious about the job that now lay before him. But it wasn't as if he had never given this topic any thought. He felt he was already in good shape.

"What about a project," he had written in his journal some time ago, "where you have a child care center staffed completely by senior citizens." And he had jotted down some bullet points, which he now rewrote in a new notebook.

All of a sudden, he had an idea, and he began writing. "Society functions best when culture and traditions are handed down from one generation to the next. The best way society can prepare for its future is to understand its own past. Real understanding can best be achieved by hands on interaction between younger and older generations."

He reread the paragraph and he liked it. It summarized the way he felt about the Appleton Trust and why the organization's mission was so important. It would become his own mission statement -- for this project, and for future projects.

And then he began outlining the idea for this one. It was a simple idea. In the past, extended families used to live together. If they weren't in the same house, they might be in the same neighborhood or in the same town. But today, society was moving so fast and families weren't sticking together the way they used to. Younger generations didn't have that constant contact with older generations the way they once did. This created problems both for individual families and for society as a whole. For society, it meant that traditions and mores and other ideas weren't being handed down from generation to generation as efficiently as they might be, and maybe even not at all. For families, it meant that grandparents weren't as readily available to assist with day to day care of their grandchildren. And because of other factors, primarily economics and social equality, it was more common than ever for both parents in a household to be working at full time jobs.

"Where is Gramma when we need her?" Ernie wrote. And Grampa, too, he thought. But when he jotted down "Granny Care" at the top of the page, his idea now had a name. He hoped the grampas wouldn't mind. He knew that he wouldn't.

John and Betty Maxwell had moved to an assisted living community that had recently been built in town. The money Helen had left them made that possible without having to dip into their savings. Their house and Helen's house were too valuable to sell, and were being rented out -- to very nice families, Betty was happy to see.

They enjoyed being in a shiny new place, even if they didn't yet use any of the nursing care which was available around the clock once needed. It was like a condominium with its own hospital, restaurant, community center. John liked to say that it was like a cruise ship without the water and ice sculptures.

They had a smaller home than they had lived in before, but their need for space had decreased. There were two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a kitchenette and a living room. This living room included a very important feature not found in the model unit -- two phones sat on a small table nestled between two soft chairs.

Ernie's calls were becoming more frequent, to their surprise and delight. They wouldn't complain if he called every day, but that would be too much to hope or ask for, they admitted.

He hadn't been to visit very much, however. Ernie didn't drive -- didn't even have a drivers' license. And he didn't like taking the bus. They were too crowded and stuffy. Every now and then, though, he'd call for a taxi to bring him on the short drive from his apartment to theirs.

He had telephoned this evening, and asked how everything was, and everything was fine. The weather was getting cooler, as weather did in September. The Brewers hadn't done anything this year, and neither had the Cubs.

Once the small talk was finished, Ernie gave them an update on his "Granny Care" project, that it had been approved and that he'd written down some ideas.

"We'd love to hear some of yours ideas," his grandmother told him.

Ernie read everything he had written down so far. He made a few additional notes about ideas that popped into his head.

"You've hit the nail right on the head," his grandfather said. "Having all of the generations in one household served so many purposes, it's shame families aren't like that anymore.

"No, Ernie, you don't have to clear our your spare bedroom," his grandmother chimed in.

John continued. "The younger people where there for the older people when they needed care. The older people were there for the younger people when they needed care. There was just more..."

"Caring," Ernie interjected.

"That, too!" his grandmother responded.

"There was more help to go around, whatever or whoever needed it," John finished saying.

"And with both parents working, which is more and more common, there is more of a need for child care, just like you said," Betty added.

"And there isn't even enough day care to go around," Ernie said. "And it's expensive. I'm hoping to solve all of it."

"All of it?" his grandfather asked.

"You've finally solved all of the world's problems?" his grandmother teased.

"Well," Ernie said, "if senior citizens are providing the care, it doesn't mean that the children are back living under the same roof with their grandparents, but it does give them far more interaction than they would otherwise have."

"And if our staff consists of retirees, we won't compete directly with other businesses on wages," he added.

"Just a minute, you have to pay them..." John said.

"Oh we'll pay them, don't get me wrong. But here's the best part," Ernie said. "One of the greatest expenses in many businesses is health care. If our day care staff are part of Medicare, we won't have as much additional expense."

"Sounds like they have been teaching you a little something over there at the college," his grandmother said.

"And that's just the cost side. Just think about all the old people we get off of the streets!" Ernie said with a chuckle.

"Who do you think..." John began.

"He was kidding, John," his wife said.

"Who do you think is going to feed all of those poor squirrels?" John joked.

"Well, it sounds like you have made an excellent start on your project," Betty spoke over the laughter.

"Thanks," Ernie said.

"Really, it's a great idea. I can't wait to hear more," John said.

There was more to it, of course. There was the physical facility. That was no different from a traditional day care, but it still required a solution.

There was transportation, too. Ernie felt that if Granny Care only provided day care for babies and preschoolers, there wouldn't be as great an impact, from a mission point of view. He wanted to reach school age kids as well. So how would you get the kids from their school to the care facility.

A spark of an idea crossed Ernie's mind and he tried to write it down before it floated away.

"Grampa Buses," he wrote. "If the children were picked up at school by vans driven by seniors, the lines of communication would be extended by at least a half hour per day."

There were details to be worked out, he knew, but he felt he had a handle on this.

Finances were an area where Ernie felt he had a strong position. The program ought to be self sustaining, he thought. If costs can be kept at a reasonable level, fees paid by parents will directly offset them. It was startup costs, however, that burdened many new businesses with debt, both personal and corporate. Ernie wondered if charitable funds from his own organization might be able to help with startup costs. Could there be Federal grants available for projects like this? That would help as well.

Ernie was constantly in touch with his independent study advisor. Dr. Andrea Weber had both pre-teen daughters and retired parents. She immediately saw the value of Ernie's plan.

"It's not as if Mom and Dad have nothing to do," she told him. But they're always telling me they wish they had some way of earning spending money. And I'm already shelling out a couple hundred a month for after school care for the girls. Why didn't I ever put two and two together?"

"And I love the idea of bringing the generations together," she continued. "Obviously that was the core of your plan, and it's a wonderful goal."

All semester long Dr. Weber challenged Ernie to think of creative ways to approach this as a business. And he was using his natural talents well, she thought.

By the end of the term, he had ironed out most of the issues, she felt. She gave him an A on his written proposal and an A on his presentation.

"I think you've got something here that could work, both as a business and -- dare I say, 'social engineering.'"

It sounded dirty in a way, he thought. But then again, he was talking about bringing people together who wouldn't otherwise be together, for just that purpose -- the interaction between them. He couldn't really argue. With her assessment or her grade -- he just couldn't argue with either.

Kim had been busy all semester with projects of her own, but never too busy to discuss with Ernie what he was working on. And she was happy to help celebrate his efforts over dinner.

*Clink* went their glasses as two Pepsis met over Kim and Ernie's table at a local Chinese restaurant.

"It must feel good to be finished," she suggested.

"You have no idea," he teased. "Of course you do! It's really been like any other class. But instead of lots of projects throughout the semester there was just one big project with lots of moving parts."

"Kind of like real life," she said.

Ernie nodded. "It's funny, when you think about it, how easy life is when you're still in school. Every semester starts fresh. Everything that came before is thrown away. Not what you learned, but how you applied it. If you made a mistake on a paper, it doesn't matter, it's been sent to the 'round file.'"

"I suppose that's true," Kim said, "but life can be like that, too. You live each day and then you move on to the next. If you hade a mistake on a Monday, you don't have to dwell on it on Tuesday."

That was one of the things he liked best about his friend. Not only did she challenge his ideas, she was often so right with her own!

Their dinner arrived and she gazed at him through the flame of the pu-pu platter.

"Oh no, Ernie, your head is on fire," she teased.

"Oh no, my head is on fire," he repeated, and patted himself on the head.

That was something else he liked about her. She was smart, she was funny; she could be serious, but she knew how to be silly.

This was a good one, he thought to himself.

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