Good Neighbor residents Larry and Martha share a laugh.
There’s a thriving community-within-a-community in Varina that’s celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but few folks know that it’s there.
It’s Good Neighbor Village, and for the family members of its 17 residents, it is the answer to many prayers.
A sign in the yard describes it as “A Special Place for Special People.” It offers full-time residential services to adults age 22 and older who have been diagnosed with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. It’s licensed for 24 residents, and currently there is no waiting list. Drive up the wide, circular driveway and you’ll find three ranch-style cottages set back from the road on 43 acres.
The cottages are warm and inviting, each with an open floor plan, a full kitchen, and comfortable, oversized furniture. Laundry facilities in each cottage emphasize independence, and residents perform housekeeping and simple cooking chores.
Each resident has his or her own room that they may decorate as they wish. On a visit earlier this year to one of the cottages, we found residents Martha and Thomas were eager to show off their spaces. Martha’s space is feminine and reflects her love of music — a doll in the likeness of the late Leon Russell hangs on the wall outside her room. “I like his songs,” Martha says.
Thomas, who considers himself the spokesman for the residents, has donned a blazer and necktie to greet the visitors. He ushers us into his room, where every surface is covered in Virginia Tech memorabilia. When Thomas says he is Virginia Tech’s biggest fan, he backs it up: He once won a Richmond Times-Dispatch award that says so.
Kim checks emails in her room in one of the cottages.
This particular visit falls on a Saturday, and the residents are home. Most hold down weekday jobs. Claude, who is 72, has delivered mail and performed administrative assistant duties at a local private school for 47 years, and Kim has worked as a messenger at the Federal Reserve Bank in the human resources department for 38 years. Other residents work in a downtown hotel and a restaurant.
Before moving in full time, each potential resident spends at least three days and nights with the Good Neighbor family to help with the adjustment to a new environment. There are 19 staff members, each of whom works four-hour shifts. Although Good Neighbor is not licensed as a skilled nursing facility, the staff can assist residents in personal care, including dispensing medication.
Respite care is available here for other families. All residents enjoy involvement in the community through an array of activities. Residents’ social calendars are diverse, and usually full.
Bowling is a favorite pastime, as are shopping, visiting museums and taking in the action at Southside Speedway in Midlothian. Residents also participate in Special Olympics activities.
Several years ago local artist Dianne Lamb came on board as a volunteer art teacher. “We had a slow start to helping these creative individuals understand they could draw and express themselves so well,” she says. “No one had ever challenged them to just enjoy and create. We continued slowly with instruction and acknowledgement of their skill, and they rose to the occasion by surprising me.”
Larry especially was interested in a variety of art forms. “Larry once drew the same image over and over, and now he can draw and paint and sculpt with clay,” Lamb says. “We have grown together into a comfortable, capable team.” He’s now known as Larry the Artist.
Judy Knauf, a home health care nurse who visits Larry weekly, began taking him on outings. When Lamb learned of their excursions, she suggested a visit to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
“The Monet exhibit was on display,” Knauf says, “and it got Larry’s attention. He stood with his chin in his hand for a while, looking this way and that until finally he said, ‘Not bad, but it could use some more color.’ ” By the time the Rodin show opened, Larry had become an art critic. After a thorough examination of “The Thinker,” he said, “I could do that.”
Sandy Thompson is a founder and a driving force behind Good Neighbor Village.
Origins
Good Neighbor Village is a private pay facility. Residents receive a private room and all meals for $2,300 per month. Although there is currently no scholarship funding available, local civic organizations such as Varina Lions Club contribute to the facility for maintenance and repairs.
Residents are responsible for spending money and for their medication and health care.
This village is the realization of a dream shared by three friends, all mothers of adult children with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. One day over coffee in 1987, they shared their common concerns for the welfare of their children in the event that they were no longer able to take care of them. Sandy Thompson was one of those mothers; she knew no one could care for her daughter Cathy as well and with as much love as she could, but she realized the day might come when she would have to trust someone else with Cathy’s care.
The conversation sparked Thompson’s determination to dig into what Richmond had to offer families of intellectually disabled adults. Her research left her discouraged, especially when she learned that facilities offering Medicare-waiver support had years-long waiting lists.
As she continued her search for funding, it became clear that government assistance had too many strings attached. “It was too conditional,” Thompson says. The village board voted down that option, and Thompson cobbled together funding through private donors and grants from foundations. Now, families pay for their children to live here, with discounted rates available to those in need of assistance.
In 1992, the first residence, the Founder’s Cottage, was built through the benevolence of the Richmond Homebuilders Association. All the labor and logistics of construction were provided through the association’s Miracle House Project, and Good Neighbor paid for materials, says Thompson’s son, Mike, a financial advisor for MassMutual Financial Group.
“They started on a Friday and worked around the clock until they had a turnkey-ready home that was finished on Sunday,” he says. “It truly was a miracle.”
Founder’s Cottage only had room for four residents at the time (it now is home to six after additions). In order not to appear self-serving, the decision was made by Thompson and her friends to wait until a second house was built before they placed their own children in a Good Neighbor home.
A year before that home, Remington Cottage, was completed in 1999, Thompson received unwelcome news concerning her health: she had lung cancer. Her thoughts went straight to Cathy. “We didn’t know the direction my health would take, so we had to make plans for her,” Thompson says.
Thompson had her daughter added to the waiting list of a Medicaid waiver-supported facility as a backup plan. Because of the urgency of the situation, Cathy was placed higher on the list and was able to move into a new group home for women in late 1998. Sadly, she passed away unexpectedly that year.
True to her nature, Thompson continued to work to finish what she had started, campaigning for private donations and funding, all the while battling cancer in both lungs.
In 2003, Good Neighbor opened its third residence, Anne Carter Robins Cottage. There are also two facilities for respite care visitors.
Cathy never had the chance to live at the village, but her memory is ever-present. “She brought out the best in the rest of us,” Thompson says.
For more information about Good Neighbor Village, contact Sandy Thompson at 804-795-9813 or sandyt.gnv@verizon.net or visit goodneighborvillage.org.
