Divine beginnings: a convent blossoms into an adult care center. (Design).

SOME PEOPLE LAUGHED WHEN CYNTHIA LONGCHAMPS, A divorced mother of three with little money and no medical background began raising funds to convert a convent for cloistered nuns into a respite center for people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. But $8 million, 10 years, and numerous design awards later, the scoffing more closely resembles sighs of wonder and amazement.

The result of Longchamps' efforts is the Family Life Center in Grand Rapids, Mich. The 15 staff members and additional volunteers provide day respite care for 35 to 40 people with Alzheimer's disease or dementia and short-term respite care--up to two weeks--for up to six residents.

A God-driven project

Longchamps calls the 14,000-square-foot facility and its therapeutic garden a "God-driven project." She recalls how one day she sat in the chapel of the convent and, for an unknown reason, asked the nun sitting in front of her if the convent was for sale. The surprised nun responded that yes, it was.

Asked what she would do with the convent if it were hers, Longchamps admitted she didn't have the money, but she would make it something for the infirm elderly of the community. The nun responded that she believed it was "God's will" for Longchamps to have the facility and that together they must find a way to make it happen.

Longchamps fine-tuned a vision for a care center that would fill gaping holes in the continuum of care for those with Alzheimer's in the Grand Rapids area. "I personally was in a situation of having to explain to my children why I was spending more time taking care of Grandma and Grandpa than I was taking care of them." She needed a safe, secure environment in which her children and parents could spend time together.

Safety in freedom

In addition to resident rooms and common spaces, the Family Life Center now features a glass-enclosed conservatory that opens into the facility's award-winning therapeutic garden and an atrium. One aspect of the facility Longchamps is most proud of is that residents can roam the grounds with complete freedom, while still being safe and secure.

"I understood we needed to find a way for people with Alzheimer's disease to be able to move about freely without alarmed or locked doors, but also to be safe, secure, and cared for," Longchamps says. The garden, which was funded entirely by community donations and took a 35-person planning committee two years to complete, is enclosed on three sides by an 8-foot wall that is a remnant of the cloistered convent and on the fourth side by an iron gate. The garden was designed so that staff sitting in a certain vantage point can monitor activity in the entire garden.

The healing garden, designed by Martha Tyson, MLA, of Douglas Hills Associates in Evanston, Ill., includes a cherry orchard, a blueberry patch, a children's play area and tea house, a waterfall, a gazebo, sitting areas, walking paths, and a working garden in which residents and family members can plant, tend, and harvest vegetables and flowers.

Tyson explains that her priorities in creating the optimal outdoor space are physical and visual access to the outdoors and adequate open space; safety, both real and perceived, for staff and residents; and a connection between the indoors and out.

In the Family Life Center's garden, familiar landmarks are strategically placed to provide reference points or visual clues for wayfinding as well as destinations or gathering places. These include the conservatory, the garden house, and the working garden.

Longchamps says that skeptics felt she was crazy to plan an elaborate outdoor space. The residents would, "fall in the waterfall, rip up the plants, and get hurt and lost." But she proudly reports that no one has been injured or misplaced, and no resident has done anything destructive.

The garden heals

Longchamps says that in the end, it's not about awards. And while she's thrilled to have national and international experts come and study her garden, she knows the results before the studies are conducted. The garden heals.

Lucille Goznell knows, too. "At the end of her rope" caring around-the-clock at home for her husband, Cecil, who has Alzheimer's, she says, "I don't know what I would have done without the Center. It provides a safe place where I can bring Cecil for a few hours during the day so that I can go food shopping or run errands. And he loves it there." She recalls that he'd often work in the garden and have a bouquet of flowers waiting for her when she came to pick him up.

Hackettstown, N.J.-based Lisa Maher is a regular contributor to CLTC.