ANAM CHARA WYOMING

Worland native dedicates ‘caring homes' to memory of grandmother

By Carley McCullough

Staff Writer

WORLAND – Peggy Tolman Quinn's Grandma Maggie was a homesteader. She spent months crossing the country in a covered wagon while caring for seven children. The woman who settled in the Big Horn Basin, even before Worland was a town, lived to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.Grandma Maggie deserved better than to end her adventurous life alone, in a sterile room, with tubes connected to her arms and face. And she didn't. Quinn was there when her grandmother passed away in her home, surrounded by loved ones. Now Quinn has made it her job to make sure others leave the world gently, surrounded by friends and family, far from unfamiliar rooms with beeping machines. She has founded Anam Chara Homes. The homes – unlike and in the country – are part group home, part nursing home, and part hospice. Caregivers there practice both holistic and conventional medicine. “Anam Chara” is a Celtic phrase. It is the title of a woman who serves as village midwife and mourner, assisting in birth and death. Quinn's admiration for her grandparents, parents, and all elderly people (whom she respectfully refers to as ”elders”) is what inspired her to begin the homes ten years ago. Her experience as a registered medical technologist also played a role in her decision to begin the nonprofit homes. She wanted to provide a comfortable, friendly, place for people to live out their last years. Because many families have tow working parents, they are unable to care for their elderly relatives. Anam Chara Homes are an alternative to more institutional living situations. Now, there is one in Denver and one in Boulder. Within a couple of years, Quinn says, she would like to begin an Anam Chara Home in Worland, her home town. Anyone who needs assisted living can come to the homes – whether they are merely unable to cook for themselves or are terminally ill. Quinn says residents are like family. They cook for each other, visit the backyard garden and pond together, and encourage each other. They also prepare for the end of their lives together. Quinn, a petite middle-aged redhead, doesn't look away when she talks about death. Unlike most people, she doesn't squirm in her chair or lover her voice. She talks about it openly because, she says, death isn't evil or strange. It's natural. “Most of out society is still afraid of aging and death,” she says. “Death is part of life.” Accepting that fact, along with having faith and belief in the afterlife, makes passing on easier. “You don't see and atheists at that age,” Quinn says. When elderly residents and their families are able to talk about death and accept it without fear, Quinn says, they can peacefully say goodbye – tell there families how much they love them. “When other residents see the love and tenderness…it's so much easier for them to die,” She says. At the homes, caregivers try to fulfill requests to make residents happy and comfortable ant the end of their lives. One woman requested fresh raspberries. Another was happy to have her granddaughter bring a bouquet of daffodils. The flowers, sitting on a night stand, comforted her as she faced the end of her life, Quinn says. One man wanted one last visit to the home's gardens. Anam Chara homes also encourage frequent family visits. Often family members are present when a resident dies, she says. And when there are no official family members to comfort dying residents, other residents take over, she said. You have a sense of community and family.”

CARING FOR THE ELDERLY: Mary Tolman Flannery (left), and Peggy Tolman Quinn stand with their father, Dean Tolman. All three grew up respecting the wisdom of the elderly. Peggy is the founder of Anam Chara Homes.

From the Northern Wyoming Daily News of July 10, 1999