Some place like home

Home Place co-founder Anne Grimes blows a ram’s horn, or shofar, before Bible study at the Home Place of Ayden.

Former businesswomen open gathering place for senior adults

By Kim Grizzard

With its inviting front porch and cheery yellow door, the Homeplace of Ayden is defnitely quite homey. Te inside is just as welcoming, with a charming kitchen, cozy freplace and comfortable sofas.

So it is really no wonder that people sometimes call and ask if there are any beds available. It’s an honest mistake from those who have glanced at the cover of the brochure to assume that this is a retirement home. But the 1,800-square-foot ranch on Emma Cannon Road has almost everything except beds.

Tat’s because Homeplace isn’t where people come when they need a place to live. It’s a place they come when they want to have a life.

“When people come in, they feel a sense of happiness in here and they feel a sense of belonging,” co-founder Pam Eldridge said. “Tey feel the spirit of the Lord in here. Tat’s what we mostly get from everybody is that they really feel that the spirit is in here, which is what we’re looking for.

“We want people to feel that way,” she said. “We want them to feel that this is their second home.”

HOW IT BEGAN

Eldridge’s refurbished farmhouse is right next door to Homeplace, and co-founder Anne Grimes lives just down the road. Grimes is better known for launching Harvest Time Foods as a family business in 1981, but the idea of starting a nonproft is one that she had cooked up decades before now. Grimes and her husband, Bryan, used to talk about being involved in a ministry afer they retired.

“When he died, I just thought it was down the drain,” Grimes, 78, said. “What could I do by myself?”

Tree years ago, Eldridge came into the picture. Back then, she knew Grimes as the name behind Anne’s Flat Dumplings. But in December 2017, some mistletoe brought them together.

Eldridge had volunteered to sell pieces of the plant as a fundraiser for the nonproft organization Daughters of Worth, and Grimes bought bags of it. Still, the two wouldn’t meet face to face until months later when Eldridge was working on another fundraising efort.

As she prayed about the need, Eldridge said she felt led to contact Grimes, but she was reluctant to do so. She sent a text that she half hoped would be ignored, but Grimes proposed a meeting later the same day.

WHY SO SOON?

“I wanted to get her out of

SUMMER/FALL 2021 AYDEN MAGAZINE

HOMEPLACE OF AYDEN

3815 Emma Cannon Road, is a nonprofit, faithbased gathering place for senior adults. Visit homeplaceofayden.com. Call 258-2235.

my hair,” Grimes recalled, laughing.

At the meeting, Eldridge was surprised to fnd that a fundraising pitch was hardly necessary. Grimes was familiar with the cause and was more than willing to give. In fact, she already had an appointment to talk with a representative of the same organization the following day.

But what was more unexpected was the ease of conversation between the two strangers.

“We talked for about two and a half hours like we were just bosom buddies, like we’d known each other all our lives,” Eldridge, 70, said, laughing. “It was just amazing.”

The Home Place, a place for seniors to meet and enjoy each others’ company holds Bible study during the week in the spacious living room area of the home.

LIFE AND LONELINESS

Within a few months of their frst meeting, Grimes ofered Eldridge a job as her personal assistant. Spending hours on the road together, with Eldridge driving to allow Grimes to pursue her passion for amateur photography, led to long discussions about life and loneliness and sharing on matters of faith, family and friendship.

Diferences between the two are evident. Eldridge, a Massachusetts native who has called Greenville home for 30 years, is the more talkative and has a bit of a fair for glitz and glamour. Grimes, a Pitt County native, is more reserved and outdoorsy.

Both were successful businesswomen with experience in the food industry. Eldridge formerly owned a local franchise of Mrs. Fields Cookies. Both had children and grandchildren who were too old to be dependent on them. Grimes had lost both her husband and sister. Eldridge had recently been through a divorce.

“We had lots of conversations about how you have family but how lonely you are as an older person,” Eldridge said.

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AYDEN MAGAZINE SUMMER/FALL 2021 31

“When we were all open around here you would wonder, ‘Why does the Hardee’s and Bojangles flled with old people?’” she said, “Because they’re lonely. Tey go there to get their biscuit and hope to God somebody’s in there that they can have a decent conversation with because their kids are busy or their family’s gone.

“We spent hours on the road talking about lonely people,” Eldridge said. “Tat is exactly how this came about.”

Grimes and Eldridge, both ordained ministers, envisioned a place where veterans and senior adults could come to forge friendships and to create connections within the community. Tey wanted Homeplace to function somewhat like a senior center but with more emphasis on faith.

“We have a senior center here that does lots of things, but they don’t minister to the spirit,” Grimes said. “Tey’re ministering to the body, mainly exercise and activities to keep them busy. We just lump it altogether.

“Te county has us classifed as a private club,” she said, laughing. “Tere’s no category for what we do.”

VISION DELAYED

Following Grimes’ retirement in January 2019, she and Eldridge began remodeling an older home on the property as phase one of Homeplace. Tey broke ground on the new building in October 2019 with a goal of opening it within the frst few months of 2020. But the paint had hardly dried when the coronavirus pandemic arrived.

Stay-at-home orders issued in spring made it hard to draw any visitors, let alone seniors considered at high risk for contracting the virus. Delaying the ofcial opening, Grimes and Eldridge decided to use the Homeplace kitchen to make chicken and pastry, meatloaf and other food for seniors and veterans. Over the frst several weeks of the pandemic, they prepared and delivered hundreds of meals to people who had never heard of Homeplace.

Joanne Pador, who attends Vision Caster Ministries church with Grimes, volunteered to serve in the kitchen. By the time Homeplace ofcially opened in June, she was a regular.

“I originally came here to help,” she said. “I was just drawn to what was going on afer that.”

Homeplace has scheduled activities most Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Tursdays, from Bible studies and prayer groups to exercise classes and crafs or cooking sessions. It engages members in community service projects, from sending notes of encouragement to teachers to collecting toiletry items and other necessities for the homeless.

Behind the main facility is an area for gardening and almost 4 acres for walking. Work continues on an exercise room and a pavilion for outdoor activities.

“COVID kind of put a stop to a lot of things,” Grimes said. “We’re trying to work around that by ofering the Zoom for those that know how to do that. A lot of the older people don’t even have a smart phone, computers are alien to them.

“We could shut up and not do anything,” she said. “(But) there’s a need there for this, and we know there’s a need for it.”

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NML S# 1130932 HAPPY PLACE

Beth Capillary, who started coming shortly afer Homeplace opened, fell in love with it on the tour. On a recent Tuesday, she attended Bible study in a sunny room known as “the porch,” which overlooks a bird feeder and a pair of yellow and turquoise butterfyshaped benches outside.

A sign over the serving hatch between the great room and the kitchen reads, “Tis is our happy place.” It’s a statement that Capillary has found to be true.

“It’s such a light in the community,” she said. “Tey have great joy. It’s infectious.”

Nadine Binkley, who started coming about three months ago, agrees. She enjoys the informality and the welcoming atmosphere.

“It’s not an adult day care, which some people think. It’s not a nursing home,” she said. “It’s for people who want to enjoy life and share their life with someone else.”

“It was built for the community. Tat’s why they call it Homeplace,” Binkley said. “Once you walk in, you feel the love of God here. You’re always loved at home.”

“When people come in, they feel a sense of happiness in here and they feel a sense of belonging. They feel the spirit of the Lord in here. That’s what we mostly get from everybody is that they really feel that the spirit is in here, which is what we’re looking for.”

Homeplace of Ayden co-founder Pam Eldridge said

SUMMER/FALL 2021 AYDEN MAGAZINE

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