There is a resident at Cedar Village who regularly says to me, and other members of the staff, "You are my family." She means it and so do we. The relationship that we have with our residents, and our staff, often feels like one of family. We share a lot of life's moments together, we learn from and support one another as well. When we hold our quarterly memorial services, many times the room is filled with staff members who have memories to share and a very real grief they need to express. In fact, we often have more impromptu "healing" services for the staff on a unit after a loss because it hits them so hard. It is a privilege for us to provide care for elders at this point of their journey and the relationships we develop are real and never forgotten.

We came together as a Cedar Village family today in a way that was similar but different. Yes, it was a memorial service and yes, we were grieving a loss but it was not a resident we honored today but the 21-year-old son of one of our Nursing staff. His life ended this past weekend, in the act of saving someone else becoming the victim of senseless violence. As a staff, we spent a few minutes today both sharing our own emotions and our pain on behalf of the horrific loss one of our beloved co-workers has suffered. As we are caregivers at Cedar Village for our residents, we must also care for one another and that was what we demonstrated today.

Plans are underway for Purim and then Passover. Not only will we hold our annual community Seder on Monday, April 18, we'll also do our individual Health Care Seders a little differently this year, bringing all of us together as a community on Tuesday, April 19. We're also planning a separate Chocolate Seder-just for something fun and different-Stay tuned for details on all of these events.

Save the date for this year's 8 Over 80 event which will take place this year on May 19 at Adath Israel. Our honorees for this year are: Dr. Larry Essig; Benjamin Gettler; Murray Guttman; Eric Hattenbach; Dr. Albert Miller; Barbara Rosenberg; Freda and Pearl Schwartz; Sue and Jerry Teller. It is always a very special evening so we hope you will be with us.

All the best,