What Happens When Care Looks Like Home

As a teenager, the course of life changed unexpectedly for Pegi’s brother Tom. Tom was once on track to play baseball for the Reds, but life’s twists resulted in him suddenly needing constant care and supervision. The options just weren’t there, and Tom ended up in buildings that Pegi said felt more like institutions. 

“Certainly not like home,” she said. 

If you ask Pegi, the experience drained the life out of him. When Pegi and her family were frustrated and hitting roadblock after roadblock with care for Tom, the Graceworks Enhanced Living program gave Tom an opportunity to thrive. 

“The experience really is incredible,” Pegi said. “I know with Graceworks, he is not a number.”

That’s because Tom now lives at home with 4 other men, within Graceworks Enhanced Living program. They live in a house, in a neighborhood, and Pegi says it doesn’t feel at all institutional, because it’s not. 

“We’ve all become friends,” she said. While Pegi lives in Florida, she says she talks daily with Tom and the rest of his Graceworks family, which includes his care providers. 

The whole crew visits Pegi in Florida for vacation, and they also go on vacations throughout the rest of the country, traveling to places like Wisconsin and Tennessee. They go to work, they dance, they play sports, they are active in the community. 

Pegi recalls when Tom had to have an extensive surgery during Covid, how the whole group came together to help him pull through. 

“When there is a crisis, they pull together,” she said. “These are good, good men.”

For Pegi, and her family, they could not have imagined a better outcome for Tom. 

“I thank God every day,” she said. “I don’t know how they do it. Their hearts are truly in it, and you can tell they really care. I can go to sleep at night knowing his family is with him. By the grace of God.”