Luling Living Center has been the home of Paulette Friloux since 1987. She sits in the same spot – her spot – every day in the dining area. She is the longest tenured resident of the nursing home.
“She is Luling,” said the center’s executive director Keli Berard before quipping, “She’s our boss.”
But following Hurricane Ida, she and her fellow residents were displaced after the storm rendered significant damage upon the facility.
Late last year, Friloux was the first to return home. And many others – both in terms of resident and the facility’s longtime staff – have joined her.
The center underwent major renovations and repairs following Ida. In the meantime, many of the center’s residents were dispersed to other facilities around the state by necessity. But when Luling Living Center reopened late last year, residents began returning one by one.
“I would go visit them when I could,” Berard said. “And the first thing I’d hear was always, ‘When are you bringing me home?’ ‘Am I going to be able to go back home?’ Those were the first words. And I’d lose it every time. You can’t help but get emotional. And I’d say, yes, eventually, it’s going to be a brand-new building. It’s just going to take time.”
It was a journey to get back to this point.
Before Ida struck on August 29, 2021 – on the 16th anniversary date of Hurricane Katrina – the Luling center residents were evacuated to Kentwood.
The storm came and went, and the news wasn’t good. The roof was ripped off of the facility and the inside was completely destroyed.
“They lost all of their possessions. It was heartbreaking,” Berard said. “They had what they packed and they had the clothes on their back, but that was it.”
The residents had to be discharged for the time being.
“We started calling around to see who could take them in – it had to be scattered, because no one place would be able to take everyone,” Berard said. “And in the meantime, you’re taking the residents out of their element.”
For Clint Guillot, the owner of Luling Living Center, repairing the facility was made more complicated due to a one-year licensing rule with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, which required the facility to be back up and running within one year or risk his state operating license being revoked.
He was determined to make reopening a reality. But given his insurance funds were delayed one year with no renovation work yet begun, Guillot was forced to petition the state to change the one-year rule before investing in the Luling Living Center renovation project further. The state examined his circumstances and agreed to grant him a longer licensing period.
“We were dealing with insurance, loans, the construction process – and we had a time limit,” said Michael Guillera, Luling Living Center administrator. “(Construction) did an amazing job, especially given the time period. They renovated the entire building, with all new plumbing … we were just waiting for our time to come back, and once the chance came we jumped at it.”
The biggest difference for the upgraded facility is the addition of private rooms for the residents. All rooms but six are private. Previously the rooms at the center – at most centers, Guillera noted – were semi-private.
The center has several in-house amenities for its residents, including an activities center, beauty salon, and occupational and physical therapists in-house. Dental, eye and foot specialists also make regular visits to the facility, though when residents have to leave for appointments, a transportation van is at the ready as well.
The facility isn’t yet at 100 percent capacity. 38 residents live at Luling now, and Guillera said the hope is for 10 more to be added over the next week or two, with more after that. A current issue is insurance. The site is able to accept Medicare residents now, but Guillera noted they cannot yet accept those with advantage plans – a type of Medicare-approved health plan from a private company that offers an alternative to Original Medicare for health coverage.
But, he said, it’s been a joy to bring back so many members of the Luling family, as well as introducing new ones. That goes for the site’s staff as well, many members of which have been with Luling Living Center over the long term.
“And so many of our staff are part of the local community – they live here (in St. Charles Parish), they know the culture,” Berard said.
The center is independently-owned as well.
“We’re different from a lot of nursing homes from that standpoint,” Guillera said. “All of the decision-making process is made right here locally.”
Both Guillera and Berard said it’s felt like family reuniting.
“We consider ourselves all family here,” Guillera said. “And like any family, sometimes you have to go away for awhile. But it’s always still a family.”
