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Message from the Chairman
For the last two years, I have been involved an personal effort to establish an Alzheimer’s and adult care community in Nashville to be known as Abe’s Garden. This effort evolved from a personal experience with my father, Abram C. Shmerling, M.D., that was brought in full view by the limited availability of quality services and care dedicated to a rapidly growing population of Alzheimer’s and dementia victims.
While our city has much to be proud of in the way of culture, arts, sports, and academics, Nashville can also be nationally renowned for its commitment to medical and living facilities for those struggling with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. My passion for this endeavor grew daily as my family and I watched – virtually helpless – while Dad suffered for more than 11 years with the disease, finally succumbing in November of 2006.
This experience, while devastating to our family, opened my eyes to the dramatic need for a facility whose heart and soul would be centered on caring for those sharing this same fate. Mindful that there are no proven treatments or cures for Alzheimer’s or dementia, our only viable recourse today is to improve the quality of life for the victims and their families through a facility designed specifically for that purpose. When you learn more, as I have, about the tremendous growth in the numbers of those suffering, coupled with the future statistics predicated on longer life expectancies, I am confident you too will recognize and appreciate the need is eminent.
In the coming months we will be building our web site, so I hope you will return to share the comprehensive details regarding the plans for Abe’s Garden. We need your involvement.
In short, we are planning to build a nationally recognized facility which will serve as a model of excellence in caring for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Equally important, it will be a facility designed by, and open to, the best researchers in the country.
Our hope is that in addition to being a nurturing and caring place for individuals with Alzheimer’s or dementia, Abe’s Garden will also become a center of study - bearing fruit in the form of valuable knowledge about this disease. We will operate as a not-for-profit enterprise, which is the only way my Dad would have wanted his name to have been associated. I am committed both emotionally and financially to make this dream a reality.
On January 15, 2008, we acquired Park Manor, a seven-plus acre senior living complex off Woodmont Blvd. in West Nashville, Tennessee. The existing facility contains approximately 120 units which have a rich history as one of Nashville’s first independent living facilities, dedicated exclusively to seniors. The acquisition of Park Manor compliments Abe’s Garden’s mission and allows our newly formed non-profit organization to take the first step in its vision to develop a state-of-the-art campus community. The plan is to renovate and enhance the existing facility, continuing its use as an independent senior living community. At a future date, we will build the Alzheimer’s facility on the same campus nearby.
I hope that as you learn more about Abe’s Garden, you will find a way to help in this monumental task. I am extremely grateful for the support, wide spread acceptance and unbelievable encouragement received to date about our vision for Abe’s Garden.
Thanks for visiting our web site and allowing us to share with you this concept – and our ideas for creating something great. To be kept informed as our plans develop, subscribe online.
Michael D. Shmerling
Chairman of the Board