A postcard about roses
Elise's father, living with Alzheimer's, wrote her four lines about the roses outside his window. It took him an hour. It changed how she thought about care.
Our story
How we got here
The people, the place and the promise behind every day of care.
Our story
A house built around a writing desk
A brick house on Hartwell Street
In 2010 she bought a 1920s house near Sager Creek and put a writing desk in the front room before anything else.
The first letters
Hartwell House opened in 2011 with twelve residents. That first month they mailed ninety letters.
Three households
Two more households followed in 2015 and 2019, each with its own desk by the window.
Today
Thirty-six residents, more than two thousand letters a year and a postmaster on Broadway who knows them all by name.
- 36residents in three households
- 2,400+letters mailed home last year
- 2011first stamp licked
- 1:5caregivers to residents by day
Ratings & recognition · sample
- Readers’ Choice · Best Memory Care
- Chamber of Commerce · Small Business of the Year
- Regional Medical Center · Preferred Partner
- Statewide Aging Network · Person-Centered Care
- Area Agency on Aging · Community Partner
- University Nursing School · Clinical Site
- Literacy Council · Partner
- Hospice Alliance · Partner
- Library Friends · Community Award
Write to us. Or better, come by.
Call or text Elise to set a time. Bring a stamp and we'll help your mother write her first letter home.