August 1968 Friendship Manor opened its doors.
By Eddy
Early Pictures of the building going up. You can see Ruth in the bottom picture. Can’t really tell that she was pregnant at the time as Eddy was born 2 months after opening.
So the story goes the builder stopped by Friendship Homes and talked to Grandma Mattie. He asked if they would like to run nursing home they were building down the street? She with 2 out of the 3 boys ready to run a building and my Dad recently married, said yes. So turning to Ed said “you go a run the new Nursing home, leaving brother Charles to run Friendship Homes”. And that is what happen, Ed went down a negotiated himself 10% equity on the project as the operating partner. So using credit cards creative financing they opened in August of 1968. Eddy was born in October of ’68.
Hard Times, every new patient was a prayer of thanksgiving. One day in church Ed heard a mission story where the folks telling the story gave a portion of a garden to the Lord above a beyond a Tithe. That gave my Dad an idea. God likes to be a partner in your life and business. So Ed made God a part of Friendship Manor in this way. For each new patient we got he would give a monetary “tithe”. Ed went further that would give a higher tithe for private patients, and a lower tithe for Medicare and and low tithe for Medical. This new partnership didn’t actually work. We still experienced high vacancies even after a year of being open. In talking to brother Taff that he reminded me that it was after Dad came to the realization that EVERY patient is an equal blessing. All people given to us to take care of. Ed changed the “tithe” to be an equal amount for every patient God would entrust to us. It was this change in how Ed viewed patients to be protected and guarded that we finally filled to 100%. It was something that he remembered in all of the years of business. Is there something that you are having a difficult time doing? From habits you’re trying to break to new business that you are looking for. Find a way to make God your partner in it. God wants you to succeed. As a christian he is anxiously waiting for you to have more confidence in him so he can take you to where he wants you to go.