Gallatin Rest Home

Across Durston from Bozeman High School, Bozeman’s last publicly funded rest home stands, with its branching floor plan and a snaking lot dotted with cars. Upon my entrance to Gallatin Rest Home early in December, which is currently staffed by 3 nurses and 8 Certified Nursing Assistants, a Christmas tree illuminated the pathway to a front desk, and the home split into three different hallways. While the dining area of the rest home is ongoing construction, residents congregate in a common area in the lobby for meals and activities, and a wooden paneled aviary flashes with pastel yellow and blue as birds burrow and nest in their domain. 

Nurse Emily Walther, who was on her 4th shift by the time I got to her in the afternoon, has been working at the rest home for about 2 years now. Previously, the South Dakotan travel nurse worked for Sanford Health and has experienced the staffing issues that care facilities are facing across the intermountain west. “After the Covid years we had a lot of people get burnt out,” commented Walther. Stress on labor and financial systems has led to the closure of many public and private facilities in Montana, which has impacted the demographics at Gallatin Rest Home. These closures have sometimes meant that individuals with medical conditions or in heightened states of stress are forced to seek care options hours away from their homes. The facility generally houses individuals 50 and older and provides rehabilitation and long term care. It doesn’t have a designated visiting window for the residents’ relatives and organizes music, book and art clubs, prayer and Bible study, and bingo on a weekly basis.

Walther motioned to several bottles of nail polish. The Sunday I visited marked the end of the weekend, a time in which staff shave and style the hair and nails of residents. Simple things that allow residents to complete something they would have done independently outside of the facility are crucial.

Resident Lonnie May Johnson is being visited by her husband Dan, watching an ensemble of flutists from MSU, who are playing in the lobby of the home when I visit. A week into a foot injury, which entails a padded rest, Lonnie has been a resident for around 2 years now. She moved from Bridger Rest Home after its sudden closure. “I like it over here,” she says, but describes this transition in 2022 as “quick,” and “abrupt.” Dan, who occasionally reminds Lonnie of a detail or an anecdote, lives close by the facility, making visiting easier and meal times more enjoyable. Johnson prefers the food that Dan orders for her room because she eats more solids than the standard menu at the rest home. It’s clear the couple is close; when Lonnie developed Multiple Sclerosis, Dan was Lonnie’s nurse for 20 years. Lonnie was born in Ronan and attended high school in Hamilton before meeting her eventual husband at Montana State University.

We talk after the 10 flutists have left; musical performances and other activities are always attended by Johnson. Looking at the activity calendar for December shows the greater emphasis placed on assisted living residents during the holiday season. This theme is echoed by Emmily Walther and the administrator at the home, Darcel Vaughn. For comparison, Vaughn printed activity calendars from earlier this year, which still contain bingo, art, prayer, and reading organized by staff members, but not as frequent visits from outside groups. 

In addition to Lonnie, I was introduced to Carol, a former social worker (she describes herself as “reformed” with a chuckle), who lay under a pale pink quilted flower spread and a darker pink flower shirt. That’s where the conversation started; when I asked Carol what this career path had entailed, she responded that it’s “not what people think it is.” She had worked for numerous area agencies in Montana, Idaho, and Alaska, and reminisced about her time up north, in Alaska. “I should never have come back,” Carol joked, as she explained that there are “homes of your heart” - Alaska was one for her. Growing up with a father employed by the Forest Service and a “household executive” as a mother, Carol was acclimated to the frequent moves that eventually introduced her to the landscape of Montana after a move from her birthplace in Idaho. A rollercoaster of a career brought the resident from bureaucratic offices in Helena to street corners in Butte, where she had to track down clients outside the bars they frequented. “Bureaucrats can just be obnoxious,” she quips. 

Her parents’ health issues brought Carol back to Montana, and after residing in several other care facilities, she took residence at the Gallatin Rest Home. “[The facilities] all get to be so much like each other,” she said. “They’re good to us here.” We walked through the typical day at the rest home: 

At 8:00 AM, Carol anxiously awaits her coffee, which she says is a prerequisite for the day. As I talked to her, a commotion at the window stole my attention. A set of bird feeders were attached to the window, and finches collected at the feeders, jostling for feed. Carol starts her morning looking at these birds, remarking at their habits and greed towards the specks of seed. Eating breakfast in her room is the norm for Carol; she maintains that she has no desire to attend the activities the home organizes or become overly extroverted (“no, and that’s my choice.”). “I’m not bored,” says Carol, and it’s clear that she has a portfolio of hobbies. A bookshelf covers one wall, a basket of knitting is to her right, and the morphing clouds and flitting birds that wake her up for her coffee are visible from the window. I’m curious about the food, and Carol talks about the perfectly ripe bananas or the vanilla wafers that her caretakers occasionally bring her. A fried egg or a muffin are other food items on rotation at the facility. The rest of the day is spent with her hobbies or looking out the window, with lunch and dinner taken in bed as well.

Carol strikes me as grounded, independent, and witty. The single phrase that serves as the throughline to our interview is this: “It is what you make it.” Maintaining a realistic, yet optimistic attitude, Carol’s birds, clouds, paintings, books, knitting, and crossword puzzles are what she makes it. The nurses help her in that mission of life too. “It is what you make it.”