Once upon a time, there lived a young man named Bill. Bill was a bright and precocious child who drove his parents crazy! Although he was smart, he did not do well in school.

Then one day, he decided that he would go to college. He kissed his mother and father goodbye, and off he went to make his place in the world.

His college days were full of rebellious and defiant behavior, often getting him in hot water with the college administration. Lucky for him, he met a man named Jim who listened well and guided the strong-willed young Bill.

One day, while searching for his life’s path, Bill traveled to Boston and strolled among the ivy-covered walls of Harvard. As he felt the history of the many young men who came before him, young Bill knew in his heart that he would one day return.

And so it came to pass, that Bill did return. This time he walked through Harvard Square as a student in the Medical School. Yes, he had found his path. Bill would be a doctor and save lives!

Day after day, young Bill walked the grounds of Harvard. And day after day, he would pass by a small newsstand, sometimes stopping to buy a magazine or a paper. On many of these occasions, Bill would dream of the day he would walk up to that very same newsstand, open a magazine, and see himself. He did not know how, or why, he just knew that one day that dream would come true.

The day of his graduation from medical school came, and as President of his student class, it was up to Bill to deliver the commencement address. All morning it rained and it poured. The graduation ceremony was to be held outside. Oh my! But do not fret, young readers, for as our Bill approached the microphone, the clouds broke apart and the skies gave way to glorious sunshine! The Dean of the Medical School remarked, “Only Bill Thomas could pull that off!” The day was saved and Dr. Bill gave his first speech – the shortest speech in the history of Harvard Medical School. Can you believe it?

Dr. Bill returned to his beloved upstate New York and bought a hill – Summer Hill, to be exact. Here he would make a home. And so he did!

He went to work in the emergency room of the local hospital and began saving lives. He went to work building his own house and began making a home. Well, not quite. You see this house left much to the imagination – like walls and floors and ceilings. Oh it was fun for his boys – Zachary and Virgil. They could even ride their bikes in the house! But as a home, it needed much. It needed Jude. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Bill had made a nice life for himself – working in the ER and working on his farm. He was quite content. Then one day, it happened. He was called to the administrator’s office and he was let go. Yes, young Dr. Bill was laid off, booted, canned, given the axe, terminated, finished, kaput! Hasta la vista, baby.

What was he to do? Well, it just so happened that about that same time, Dr. Bill got a call…from the nursing home administrator! HA! Nursing Home? You’ve got to be kidding! He went to Harvard for this? Besides, he didn’t know anything about geriatric medicine (his board certification in Geriatrics was not yet a reality).

“But how hard could this be?” thought Bill. So he donned his white coat, fluffed his beard and off he went to the nursing home to make his rounds. He played the part well, acting the busy young doctor, and rushing through his rounds, signing his name as many times as is humanly possible. Yes, he was once again the successful young doctor.

Then one day, as he was making his rounds at the nursing home, he entered a resident’s room. She was lying in her bed, a shock of white hair upon her pillow and these incredible blue eyes. In his best doctor voice, he leaned down and screamed into her ear, “I’m Dr. Bill. What can I do for you today?”

She had a rash on her arm that had been bothering her. Well, he knew just what to do for that! “Hydrocortisone 1% cream applied to right forearm TID until healed.” He quickly wrote out the prescription and signed it. He couldn’t stop looking at those beautiful blue eyes! He leaned in again and asked, “Is there anything else I can do for your today?” The old woman with the beautiful blue eyes grabbed his arm and pulled him close to her and with a very soft and sad voice, she said, “Doctor, I’m so lonely!”

Well this flustered the young Dr. Bill. He really didn’t know how to respond. He smiled gently and patted her hand and slipped out of the room. As he continued on his rounds, he couldn’t stop thinking about those beautiful blue eyes. They were haunting him. He didn’t know how to help this patient. They didn’t teach him anything about loneliness at Harvard. He went home that night and pulled out his medical books. He scanned every index in search of a treatment for loneliness. Nothing.

Dr. Bill began to think about his other patients at the nursing home. He had the best medical education you can buy, yet he knew he was failing. His patients were still dying. Why? Was loneliness attacking them as well? This led Dr. Bill to do a very strange thing for busy doctors to do. He went to the nursing home and sat. Yes, he just sat and watched. He was no longer playing the role of the busy young doctor. He was just observing. He sat in the lobby. He sat in the dining room. He sat in the solarium.

What he saw was something he had been too busy to see before. What he saw were his Elders suffering – not from the physical ailments that brought them to the nursing home, but from plagues of the human spirit. He saw his patients suffering and dying from loneliness, helplessness, and boredom.

These plagues had been there all the time, right under his nose. He had just been too busy to notice. He didn’t learn about these plagues at Harvard. No one taught him how devastating they could be. But here they were. Everywhere he looked in the nursing home. They were there – robbing the spirit of the Elders. The medical model did not have the answers to these problems. It could tell him what to do about a rash, or diabetes, or congestive heart failure. He knew how to treat a broken hip or a stroke, but he didn’t know how to treat loneliness.

Dr. Bill knew that he had to do something. Now that he had this knowledge of what was hurting his patients, he couldn’t just let it continue. Now that he knew the world of the nursing home was broken, he knew he must try to find a better world. So he began to read and think a bout world-making. If we could create any kind of world for our Elders, what would it be? How would it look? How would it feel?

This brought Dr. Bill to the story of Eden. Every child in America knows this story of world-making. Yes, he thought, “Human beings were not meant to live in a cold, sterile environment. They were meant to live in a Garden. That is a true Human Habitat. We must create a place for our Elders that is much more like a Garden – the Garden of Eden!”

About this same time, the State of New York was offering grants for demonstration projects to find a better way to care for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. Armed with his new way of thinking, Dr. Thomas wrote a grant to create a different kind of nursing home. This nursing home would not be patterned after a hospital. No, this nursing home would be patterned after a true Human Habitat – the Garden of Eden.

Lo and behold! Our young Dr. Bill got the grant! Initially called the “Dementia Grant, the money would fund a three year study. ” Well, he needed some help if he was going to really do this, so he wrote an ad and put it in the newspaper. “If you love children, plants, and animals, this job is for you! Apply at XYZ Nursing Home.”

And somewhere across town, a young woman picked up the paper. Who had ever heard of such a thing! Plants, animals and children - in a nursing home? This caring young woman had spent 2 years taking care of her Dad at home until she was forced to put him in a nursing home where there was nothing even close to an enlivened habitat. There he died a very sad and lonely man. That painful memory made her promise that she would never again enter a nursing home! But this ad caught her attention. Who loved children, plants and animals more than she? Why no one!

So she came to the nursing home. He noticed her walking down the hall. What young man wouldn’t notice her? She was tall, and she had beautiful long, brown hair. She walked with grace, and her spirit and love of life seemed to brighten the hallway as she passed. And she was coming to apply for the job!

Her name was Jude. Do you think she got the job? Yes, Jude was hired as Project Director. For the next three years, Dr. Bill and Jude worked hand-in-hand developing a new kind of nursing home, and the Eden AlternativeTM was born.

Dr. Bill wrote his first book, Nature, Hope , and Nursing Homes, telling the story of this initial project. That book is out of print, and has now been replaced by Life Worth Living.

But Bill and Jude didn’t stop there. To replicate the project, they went on to develop the Eden Coalition, a network of 3 nursing homes in New York State. They didn’t stop as just work partners either. Yes, as Eden grew, so did their love for one another. It wasn’t long before the first marriage in Eden was made.

Working out of a very small, very cramped room inside a schoolhouse on Summer Hill, Jude developed the first Eden newsletter. They felt the need to “get the word out about Eden.” It worked! In the spring of 1993, just three short years since the idea was hatched, they received their first out of state request for information. This was the true beginning of the Eden “movement.”

Dr. Bill and Jude went on the stump! As harbingers of this great message, they traveled by car to any place that would listen to what they had to say. For three years they worked with the Eden coalition and talked, and talked, and talked. They were doing more than just talking, because it wasn’t long before their beautiful daughter Haleigh joined their family. Until now, it had been just the boys, Zachary and Virgil, who played on Summer Hill.

The next few months were devastating for our young couple as they learned the very sad news that their daughter would never walk, would never talk, would never see, would never even be able to hold up her head. This news only served to strengthen their resolve to bring the message of Eden to the world. For you see, in many ways, young Haleigh is an Elder. She has already gone where many of us will go if we live long enough. Haleigh is wise and wonderful. She is here to teach us how to be better caregivers. She is truly a gift.

So, as our story continues, we find Dr. Bill and Jude, now joined by their daughter Haleigh, bringing the message of a better world for our Elders to the world. In May 1996, the first group of forty adventurers traveled to upstate NY to attend the first Associate Training. For the next two years, they came.

As more and more people longed to here their story and learn for them, Bill and Jude realized that this message belonged to the world and they needed help to spread it. So they put out a call to all they had trained. Do you want to be a Regional Coordinator? And the letters came.

One night, sitting around their kitchen table, with a map and marker in hand, the Eden founders divided the country in to regions. There was certainly no science involved, just a map, a marker, and a dream – a dream of changing the world of long-term care. Those chosen came back to NY to begin their journey. They came from all over, each from a different place, each with a different story but all with a common dream.

And so the Eden Regional Coordinators were born. They were given their charge – Tell the world – “It can be different.” And off they went into the world. Twice a year they return to meet and hash out ideas, and try to resolve issues. It is not easy. You see, none of these folks has ever run a social movement before.

And so there were problems, and so they made mistakes, and so they fussed and discussed and worried over every decision. But their hearts were good and their commitment strong.

In their best effort to attempt to acknowledge the hard work of those organizations who commit to Eden and as a way to separate them from the pretenders, the Eden Registry was established. About the same time, the Regional Coordinators realized they needed more help, so the role of Eden Mentor was established.

About this time Bill and Jude became proud parents once more. Another beautiful daughter, Hannah, was born. It wasn’t long before the new parents began to realize that sweet Hannah suffered for the same terrible disease as her older sister. It was again a very sad time. The girls require around-the-clock nursing, so Bill and Jude now had a long-term care facility right in their own home. Their determination and commitment to Eden only strengthened.

As more and more facilities attempted the hard work of Edenizing, more and more facilities asked for a “how-to” manual. How do you write a how-to manual when the how-to is different in every facility? Out of this cry for help came an amazing new book. Dr. Bill’s, Learning form Hannah, is a collection of stories within a story that teach the Ten Principles of the Eden Alternative. Accompanying this book is the Eden Handbook, a guide for achieving these principles.

In 2001, work on a new retreat center was completed at Summer Hill. That little schoolhouse where it all began is now a bustling hive of activity where good people from all over the world gather to share ideas, partake of good food, struggle with the hard work of change, and dream of what comes next.

In March of 2002, Bill and Jude named a Board of Directors to take over the operations of the non-profit corporation, The Eden Alternative, Inc. The Board has engaged an Executive Director who will work closely with the Regional Coordinators, Mentors and the Board to raise awareness of Eden and provide support and guidance to the courageous caregivers who dare to dream of a better world for our Elders.

.Most recently, a new training guide, resource manual and personal journal has been added to the repertoire of tools available to guide organizations through this journey. This remarkable resource tool and ongoing journal, called Haleigh’s Almanac, will be given to each participant at Eden Associate Trainings.

And so the journey continues. As of this writing, Bill and Jude now have another child, Caleb, who keeps them very busy, along with their other four children. Eden is spreading around the world with operations in Australia, Canada, Europe and soon to be more countries. Eden has trained almost 5,000 people who are searching for a better way. The first International Associate Training and Conference will be held in November 2002. Bill is writing another book, soon to be published. Bill and Jude remain the heart of Eden. They are now surrounded by thousands of committed and caring people who share their dream.

As you read this and begin your own Eden journey, there is one more story to add to the Story of Eden. It is your very own story. Please begin to write it and share it with others. That is how we learn – from each other.

Together, we can and will find a better world for our Elders. And in so doing, we will find a better world for all.

Welcome to the journey…