Little Sisters of the Poor Celebrate Grand Reopening of Holy Family Home<\/a><\/p>\nThe sisters and architects created a plan that would not only offer a brighter space, but provide greater personal dignity within every resident\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Little Sisters of the Poor and their (residents) were never going to leave campus. They\u2019ve always been here on this campus with us, and we\u2019ve been doing projects around them,\u201d said INTECH Construction Superintendent Steve Rhodes about the three-year construction process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a little challenging for us to tippy-toe around residents living here, but I think it\u2019s been very entertaining for them. They\u2019ve had a construction project in their lap for the last three years that they\u2019ve been able to watch and follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rhodes deeply experienced the charism of the Little Sisters of the Poor in his years building their reimagined home.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, we started talking about the project and certain aspects that she has her hands in,\u201d he said. \u201cAbout a year ago, my mother passed away. That was an emotional time. She\u2019s just been a good friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such care for the whole person now has a new home where simple, profound love can grow.<\/p>\n
The newly designed structure serves 37 independent-living residents with newer studio and one-bedroom apartments.<\/p>\n
The renovation also provides same-floor access previously unavailable to residents in independent-living units, which 18 residents in skilled care had enjoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have given every resident a private room with their own complete bathroom. They now have a shower. They have cabinetry. They have everything they need for their own personal privacy. You can\u2019t imagine how important that is until you don\u2019t have it,\u201d Sister Veronica said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can look out the window and look at the birds and see the garden. They can come out of their room, down the hall to the dining room, around the corner to physical therapy, a little further to the chapel, to the recreation area where entertainment is provided, out the front door or the back door to their garden. Everything is available for them on their own level.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said residents have experienced simple but profound change.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne resident said, \u2018I actually have a living room and not a sitting room.\u2019 Another one who has dementia and has been nonverbal sat at her window and wouldn\u2019t move. Her daughter said, \u2018I couldn\u2019t get her to move from that window for an hour.\u2019 She was looking at the birds in the birdbath, and the words that came out of her mouth were, \u2018It\u2019s beautiful,\u2019\u201d said Sister Veronica.<\/p>\n
\u201cA man came up to me that didn\u2019t know us before and said, \u2018I can feel the presence of God and his love dwelling here in this home.\u2019 That\u2019s really why we are Little Sisters of the Poor, to give ourselves without reserve to the elderly and their needs in the name of Christ, because he\u2019s the one we\u2019re serving who dwells among us and dwells in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That defines the kind of dwelling resident Isabel deeply wanted for the remaining years of her life. The Puerto Rico native and longtime educator desired a place where she could live her faith and truly feel the love of home.
After waiting six extra months for renovations to be completed, she gushes while describing the love she receives from the sisters whom she calls \u201cangels.\u201d They also helped her through a major medical complication that began just days before she moved in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t have words to express what these sisters did,\u201d Isabel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese sisters, their mission is so simple, but at the same time, very, very, very profound. It\u2019s total, and so committed, what is most important, and mostly that big tenderness of God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted June 27, 2025 Simple, profound, tender love. When you ask the residents of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,19494,19495,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-21032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jay-sorgi","10":"tag-little-sisters-of-the-poor","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114759421471844529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}