“The first time I met her, I could feel the outpouring of love coming from her. She held my hand and thanked me for being there for the residents. I thought, this is where I am supposed to be. This is the reason I want to be a nurse, to give people what Barbara gave to me, to open your heart to care for them.”
That’s how Brenda Schmidt, MSN, registered nurse, director of nursing at Delmar Gardens West, remembers its founder, Barbara Grossberg. That first encounter was 33 years ago, when Schmidt, then a nursing student, was working there as a nursing assistant.
“She was such a gracious, warmhearted person. She would sit with the residents and just listen to them. With this, they knew they were in a good place and people would be taking care of them,” said Schmidt.
There was something else, too, that Schmidt noticed about Grossberg — the numbers tattooed on her wrist, numbers indicating her time as a Nazi concentration camp prisoner.
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Surviving the holocaust
Grossberg grew up in Hungary where her father, a physician, instilled in her a desire to help her elders. When she was 13, the Nazis invaded the country, separated her from her parents and sent her to concentration camps.
“She sometimes talked about it, about how when she went for a shower, she would never know which line she was in, whether it was an actual shower or the gas chamber,” Schmidt recalled.
In 1945, U.S. troops liberated Dachau, and Grossberg returned to Hungary, only to learn that her parents had perished during the Holocaust. She later met and married Henry Grossberg, a survivor of a Nazi labor camp. They had two sons, George and Gabe, and life was good. But in 1956 another political upheaval disrupted their lives when the Hungarian Uprising, a movement to free the country from Soviet rule, was crushed by their military.
Eventually, the Grossbergs and their children made their way to the U.S., where they settled in University City, Missouri — and that’s where their true mission began.
A lifetime of caring for others
Somehow, despite — or perhaps because of — living through these horrific experiences, caring for others became the driving force of Grossberg’s life.
“She began by taking care of people in her home. She did everything for them, anything from cooking to doing their laundry to bathing them,” said Schmidt. “And it was really encouraging to see that the owner of the company had actually done everything I was just starting to do.”
The Grossbergs founded the first Delmar Gardens in 1965. Today, its state-of-the-art skilled nursing, extended care and memory care facilities — along with their independent and assisted living communities — are run by their son, president and CEO Gabe Grossberg.
A special place to work
“Gabe is very much like his mother, giving wholeheartedly to the residents and the staff,” said Schmidt. “He’s wonderful with all the employees.”
In this way, he also resembles his father, Henry Grossberg, who showed enormous consideration for the staff, phoning in, even late at night, to see if all was well and if they needed anything.
Schmidt too continues this tradition of warmth and caring. Though many nursing directors spend most of their time in their office pushing papers, you’ll usually find her on the floor, attending to the needs of patients, their families and her staff.
After 33 years at Delmar Gardens, she can’t imagine a better place to work.
“I always felt like this is not so much a job, more like a second home,” she said.
For more information about Delmar Gardens skilled nursing, rehabilitation, independent and assisted living communities, and career opportunities, please visit delmargardens.com.