Palm Garden of Orlando
You never know, you just never know. That’s one of the primary takeaways from this whole journey for me. You never know what stories will come from the residents and you never know what each journey will bring. What a day at Palm Garden. It was nice to have the chairman of our iN2L board (Michael Locke) in tow for this day. He wanted to get an inside perspective on the 60/20 Tour, and he got it!
Palm Garden was the first nursing home chain in Florida to 100% buy in to iN2L. It was all driven by a long-time friend of mine (and CEO), Rob Greene. The story of Palm Garden is remarkable. Rob has done a great job of integrating compassion with innovation, and you just get it when you walk into their communities. But maybe I can teach him something about his communities. Did he know one of his female residents was a retired 1960s professional wrestler??? Probably not.
Palm Gardens was ready for us. Evelyn had the gang ready to go and we proceeded to have a great party and tour of the community. You can always judge a building by the energy and enthusiasm that emanates from the staff, and these guys have it!
Pauline and Kay were the star performers in the cruise and croon. Pauline was hilarious! I won’t go into too many details – you can watch the clip yourself. Let’s just say she was willing to share her stories, and that part of her life has not slowed down! Watch out eligible bachelors floating around Orlando! Just when you think there was no more to be found from these ladies, we find out Kay, the other crooner, was a professional wrestler in the 60s! And her stage name was Candy Starr! I don’t recommend searching for that name on the Internet – we tried, and that name gets some strange results. These two women were amazing, and I loved having Michael in the back soaking it all in. The rendition we did of “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” will be a highlight of the trip! I’m heading back to this community just to hear what Pauline is up to.
