Glenn Nasuta, an Army veteran who served as a radio operator and repair officer from 1966 to 1969, celebrated Veterans Day on Monday in a way he did not expect after he moved into an assisted living community in Aurora over the summer.
“I think having this facility put up a memorial here is amazing,” Nasuta said following a 30-minute ceremony held at the Bardwell Residences, a senior independent and assisted living, and memory care, facility that opened last year at the old Copley Hospital campus in Aurora. “I think it’s amazing what they did here and how they recognize everybody and what they offered. I hang out with some of the vets here. We have a connection and something to relate to. You’re all in the same boat, so to speak.”
Bardwell Residences unveiled a new veterans wall on Monday that includes names and pictures of veterans living at the facility.
Becky Drake, director of sales and marketing for Bardwell Residences, said it “is in an amazing, historic, repurposed building in the city of Aurora that has been open for one year.”
“We are doing our very first pinning ceremony on Veterans Day and we have created a memorial wall for our veterans that live with us that is being unveiled,” Drake said before the ceremony on Monday. “Currently, we have nine veterans living with us at the moment. There will be photos of each of the veterans when they were in the military.”
A 10th veteran was honored in the pinning ceremony, Daniel Michael Barajas of Aurora, who works at the facility as the director of nursing of memory care and served in the Marine Corps for four years.
Drake said plans for the memorial wall began being discussed about three or four months ago.
“We sort of put the wheels in motion a few months ago but it’s always been an idea,” she said. “We got some funding from the community as well as from a hospice group. The veterans here are excited to see our new wall and excited to see what is going on and a new kind of way for honoring our veterans.”
Veterans living in the facility along with family members and staff members met in a dining area inside the living center where a ceremony including taped music and the Pledge of Allegiance and taps were offered. The ceremony was led by Todd Clark, who works for journeycare.org as a hospice liaison.
Barajas personally went up to each veteran during the pinning ceremony before receiving one himself.
“I think this recognition is really good and I’m glad the facility is doing this. Everybody has the opportunity to recognize veterans as a whole, but I think that once you leave the military, I think sometimes we get forgotten,” he said after the ceremony concluded. “We go off into our next duty station or our next part of our life, but what we did and where we did it shaped our country and is still shaping our country. When someone recognizes us, it’s an honor.”
Army veteran John Cella, who served from 1955 to 1957, who moved to the facility last year, said that he “served during peace time but really admired the people who served in the war.”
“Being recognized here is very nice and it means a lot to me,” he said.
Beth Wessels of Oswego came to honor her grandfather, Arnold Nelson, who did not participate in the pinning ceremony due to health reasons.
Wessels said she still wanted to come to acknowledge her grandfather and the other veterans.
“My grandfather was excited about it. He came here in June of this year and he is an Army veteran who served two years,” she said. “We wanted to come down to honor him and to honor all the vets.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
