"I don’t know how we’re going to manage without her, to be honest." — Melinda De Santo, Brookdale Hearthstone business manager

MOSES LAKE — Janet Gonzales will leave a big hole when she retires at the end of the month at Brookdale Hearthstone after 39 years.

“She knows everything about this building,” said Melinda De Santo, Brookdale Hearthstone’s business manager. “She knows it all. I don’t know how we’re going to manage without her, to be honest.”

Emeritus at Hearthstone, as it was called then, was only a year old when Gonzales came to work there, she said. There was a total of five residents, and the building was split between a retirement home and an assisted living facility. The facility became all assisted living when Brookdale acquired the place in 2014.

Over almost four decades, Gonzales has worn a lot of hats. 

“I started as a caregiver, and I did that for 10, 15 years,” she said. “Then I went to activity director and I did that for five years, and then I got injured, so they gave me a job at the front desk. And I just love it.”

Those may be the official titles, but they’re a long way from all that Gonzales has done, Brookdale Hearthstone Administrator Laurie Ahmann said. 

“If someone left, Janet just picked up (their work) and took it over,” she said.

Ahmann began working with Gonzales in 1999, she said, when Ahmann worked at the front desk and Gonzales was a caregiver. 

“She cared so much about these residents over the years; she was the lead caregiver,” Ahmann said. “If anybody was going to be hired, they’d better have Janet’s approval because Janet had – and has – high expectations for how to take care of and love these residents.”

Gonzales was born and raised in Moses Lake, she said, and immediately after graduating from Moses Lake High School, she went to work art Lake Ridge Center, which cares for dementia patients. There she worked under a nurse who took Gonzales under her wing and taught her the art of caring for the elderly.

“She taught me to treat them with dignity, respect and kindness,” Gonzales said. “I did that through all the years that I was a (certified nursing assistant), because they mean a lot to me.”

Gonzales bought that same attitude to the front desk, she said.

“I try never to say no to them,” she said. “If I don’t have an answer, I will try and find an answer for them. They come to me and say ‘Janet, I need help with this. Can you set up a doctor’s appointment?’ ...That’s a big part of (working) in assisted living. You have to have that trust, because if they don’t trust you, they’re not going to go to you with any questions or concerns.”

That care extends beyond the residents, Ahmann said.

 “That’s vendors, residents, family members, other staff that she has trained,” Ahmann said. “She will be greatly missed.”

“You fall in love with the families and the residents,” Gonzales said. “They make you laugh; you make them laugh when they’re feeling sad, try to bring up their emotions so they can smile again.”

Gonzales’ last official day is Aug. 28, but between now and then, there’s a little goodbye display set up at the entrance to Brookdale Hearthstone where not only residents but family and friends of former residents can stop by and let Gonzales know how much she’s meant to them. They can write a note, or if they prefer, there’s a little white phone where folks can record an audio message. Gonzales will take all the messages home with her when she goes.

“We just want to take this time to really honor Janet and the years of care and love that she has given every single person that has walked into this building,” Ahmann said.

Gonzales has a few things lined up for her newfound free time, she said.

“I’m going to paint my bathroom,” she said. “I did a remodel quite a few years ago and I haven’t painted the ceiling yet, so I’ve got to get that done. I’m doing some landscaping in my yard. I’ve got a lot of projects that I don’t have time for on the weekends.”

Gonzales plans to leave a little early on her last day, Ahmann said.

“She said, ‘I’d like to leave at noon,’” Ahmann said. “I’ll grant her wish, but it will be a sad, sad day.”

    From left: Janet Gonzales with nurse Debbie Campbell and Gonzales’s aunt, CNA Florence Hernandez, at Emeritus at Hearthstone in the early 1990s.