R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Leah Miron, co-owner and administrator at Lakeview Assisted Living in Gladstone, sits with residents in front of a fireplace in one of several common areas.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

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GLADSTONE — Daryl Miron founded Lakeview Assisted Living and Memory Care after running two other adult foster care homes also in Gladstone. Lakeview, with 60 apartments, multiple wings and vaulted ceilings, is larger than the other facilities and was purpose-built. The owners — Daryl and his wife, Leah, who is also the administrator — take pride in Lakeview’s family-operated nature. Leah said that people appreciate the elegant construction, the building’s safety, and the caring staff.

Nestled on a quiet northeastern section of Little Bay de Noc, Lakeview Assisted Living opened in 2004. In just under 20 years, three additions have been built. The last addition, which Leah said was celebrated with a grand opening in 2017, included six more assisted living units and the entire memory care wing.

Any resident at Lakeview may receive attention when necessary in their private room. Each suite is outfitted with an alarm to alert staff and trigger a light in the hallway above the door of the apartment in need. Care is made available 24 hours a day.

Provided generally to all residents is “assistance with acts of daily living,” said Leah. That includes “medication management, providing a safe environment, activities, home-cooked meals,” she said.

“And monitoring of residents,” added Mara McInerney, director of nursing at Lakeview. “If anything is going on, we’ll notify families. It’s close monitoring.”

The attention provided by regular staff is not considered “skilled care,” but if such care can is required, “we can reach out to the homecare agencies, and then they are considered the skilled care part. They come in to see the resident, whether that be for wound care, catheter care… hospice.”

Rarely do residents end up leaving to move into other facilities. Leah said that Lakeview becomes home to the people who move in, and that one of the few reasons people might move out is when family who lives out of the area wants their loved one closer.

“Residents age in place here,” McInerney explained. “As they progress and they get older, we call them hospice as needed — that’s considered a skilled care.”

Leah reiterated, “Age in place. This is their home. All the apartments are private apartments. No one shares a room unless it’s a married couple or sisters — it’s their home. This is where they want to be, and this is what we do. We strive to make it as comfortable and as joyful and as peaceful as possible.”

McInerney said, “They get to be like one big family — joking around and teasing each other.”

It has happened that residents relocate from one wing to another. The memory care wing was designed specifically for those with dementia or who are considered a “high-elopement risk.”

Yes, doors and windows in the memory care section are locked, but the thoughtful part of its design is in the layout, said Leah.

“The design of it was very intentional,” she said. “There’s no, like, dead end. Everything loops. So the residents down there, those that like to wander — they can wander all day long and not get to the end of a hallway. With dementia, if they were down in a straight hallway, some of them get confused; they get to the end of a hallway and they don’t know how to turn around and get back. So the memory care is just a beautiful design.”

Art on the walls in the memory care section consists of old photographs of local sites, aimed to “trigger some of those memories,” said Leah. “That was again, very intentional.”

A portion of the yard outdoors is enclosed within a fence, but a much greater area is available out in the open, with sidewalks for strolling when family comes to visit. There are no set visiting hours; family and friends can come and go as they please, join for a meal, or participate in any of the activities.

There are regular church services, movies in the the theater, cosmetologists who come to the in-house salon at least once a week, exercise sessions, musical performances, and other social activities both on and off the premises.

Lakeview Assisted Living and Memory Care is looking forward to two new things coming in January. One is that another registered nurse is joining the team on the first of the year.

“We will be the first community to have on-site physical therapy — it’s super exciting,” said McInerney, explaining that physical therapists have been visiting as needed through the home care agencies. “That will be coming up after the first of January.”