“There should be no poor among you. For in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, He will richly bless you” (Deut. 15:4).

No one is poor at the Reformed Presbyterian Home. In fact, it is better than that. Everyone is rich at the RP Home. Everyone has food, clothing, shelter and care in abundance. They also have the comfort of knowing these blessings are not tied to their ability to pay. They have them because they belong to a church that long ago made provision for its members’ old age.

Early in the 1890s, a member of the Wilkinsburg Reformed Presbyterian Church lost her hand. Unable to work and therefore unable to support herself, she applied to the United Presbyterian Home in Wilkinsburg, but was refused admission because she was not a member of that denomination. Her plight came to the attention of the women of her congregation and served as a catalyst for action.

The women of Wilkinsburg RPC petitioned the Synod to consider “the necessity of taking steps to provide a home for aged persons and an orphanage if found practicable.” At the same time, Mary McKee Morton of the Allegheny congregation asked her aged father, John A. McKee, to make financial provision for a home. Acting upon his daughter’s suggestion, he gave $5,000 to the Synod on the condition that a work be started within 5 years.

Time passed. Fearing that the $5,000 would be lost because of inaction, the women petitioned Synod again. Synod’s response was to approve cooperation between the women of Pittsburgh Presbyterial and Synod’s board of trustees “in the matter of establishing a widow’s and orphan’s and aged people’s home.”

Soon it became apparent to the Trustees that it would be appropriate for the women to assume sole responsibility for the work. They recommended the same to Synod, which passed a resolution stating “that the board of trustees of the Synod be relieved from further work, management and responsibility in connection with the Home, and that Synod, by formal resolution, commit such management and responsibility from this time forth to the women of the church under the corporate name of the Reformed Presbyterian Woman’s Association.” In anticipation of this resolution, the RPWA was chartered March 1897. The charter states the home is for “widows, orphans, aged and infirmed members of the RPCNA and others.” The inclusion of “others” was deliberate, done by a motion at the final adoption of the charter.

Since opening in 1897, the RP Home has followed the direction of its founders and given priority in admission to Reformed Presbyterians, while accepting others as room is available. Currently, 75% of those in the residential unit are Reformed Presbyterians.

Skilled nursing is a great blessing to those who need it. But our core ministry remains in our residential unit. Here elderly saints enjoy long and fruitful lives. Most are too frail to live alone, but because the basics of life—food, shelter, and companionship—are easily available, they live independently with only occasional nursing support required for temporary illnesses. There is no public assistance for residential care, so our charitable burden is significant. In 2009, the Home gave $152,500 in uncompensated care to persons in the residential unit, a majority of whom are Reformed Presbyterians. Not only are they unable to pay the Home for the care they receive, in many cases they cannot pay for their own health insurance premiums, copayments for doctors’ visits, and pharmacy bills. In the absence of family able to help, the Home picks up these outside costs and also gives an $85 monthly stipend to the resident. This amounts to another $27,000 in benevolent care.

The Home, like all long-term care facilities, is subject to severe and ongoing financial pressures. In the nursing unit, excessive regulatory oversight and increasingly intrusive compliance requirements drain our resources. To receive Medicaid, we must participate in a system that forces us to spend expensive staff time documenting every element of care. Each nursing home is assigned its own Medicaid payment rate based on the data it submits. The Department of Public Welfare then looks at the portion of the budget the legislature has set aside for nursing home care, and invariably finds it inadequate to cover the sum of the proposed payments. Their solution is to decrease all payments proportionally to fit the budget. This portion of the state budget has been frozen for five years. Meanwhile, our costs and obligations are rising.

The finances of the Home are extremely complicated, and there is no single problem or single solution to the current situation. But there is one area where we have complete confidence. The people of God have always been generous in their support of the Home. In the first three quarters of 2010, which has been a difficult period for many sectors of our society, individual charitable support for the work of the Home has grown 50% over a comparable period in previous years.

Many Reformed Presbyterians living in the Home have sufficient funds to pay for their own care. In fact, they see themselves as recipients of God’s mercy because of the Home, and show their thankfulness by giving generously to the Home well beyond our actual charges.

We thought you would be interested in the first report of the RPWA, which listed charitable giving by congregation, and have placed it in a sidebar. Quinter, Kan., RPC’s 83 cents translates to $21.12 in today’s money. In 1897, Quinter was a cluster of pioneers living in sod houses.

We speak almost nostalgically of the days when there were no telephones or motorcars. But in 1897 there was also no public assistance for an aging person without family or funds, and the pioneers in Kansas knew that. The first annual report of the RPWA records the gift of 83 cents or a dozen eggs with the same dignity that we record a gift of $1,000 today. Inflation is not the reason. Back when there was no public assistance, it was sometimes the poor who supported the poor.

Please read the sidebar containing the report of the house committee for January and February 1898, the first winter at the Home. Perhaps, like me, you will start out interested in the difficulties of life long ago and be struck by what it means to endure a winter without central heating in a drafty, wood frame house high on a windy hill. Illness comes. One resident offers to care for the other. She also becomes ill, so a nurse must be hired to care for both. Purchases are made: a cot for the nurse, a stove to warm their room and a bed pan. Death comes to both residents. Each funeral is conducted by three ministers and each body accompanied by board members to their burial, one as far away as New Concord, Ohio.

When the narrative breaks off, we are no longer thinking about the cold, drafty house, but the faithful attention to the smallest detail of a person’s life by a diverse group of people coming together in response to the words of Christ: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me.”

Today, we have Medicare and Medicaid to assist us in our ministry. But they are not sufficient to supply the needs around us. Public assistance may help keep the body alive, but it does not feed the soul. It is our mission to go beyond the essentials and provide help in a way that those who are helped feel the touch of Christ.

Illness and First Deaths at RP Home as Described in the Report of the House Committee

January 19–February 9, 1898

We visited the Home as often as we could under existing circumstances, namely, one member of the committee living at such a distance from the Home, and sickness in the family of the other. We found everything quiet and harmonious as usual.

Miss McCauley continues quite ill. We found it necessary to remove her from her room to the Wilson room, as she required some one in constant attendance upon her. Mrs. Law very kindly offered to care for Miss McCauley as long as she was able. After consultation held, we removed Mrs. Law’s bed from the Sproull room, and there they have been together, Mrs. Law being untiring in her service.

Mrs. McFerron has been ill also. It being necessary for some one to be with her, the girl very kindly offered to stay with her for a time. She is better at this writing. Your committee would suggest a cot be purchased for the Home. In case of sickness a cot is a necessity. Where the patient is not so ill as to require one to sit up all the night, it is well to provide a resting place for the nurse. Mr. Hice kindly secured a stove for the Wilson room, making it very comfortable. Another suggestion, we are sadly in need of a bed pan.

February 9–March 9, 1898

Another month has passed, and one that will be long remembered in the history of the Home. As Miss McCauley was gradually getting worse and Mrs. Law was sick, the services of a nurse was deemed advisable. The services of Miss Braum was procured who proved a most capable and efficient nurse. But God in his all wise Providence saw fit to remove both to their long home, where no sorrow or pain ever enters, Miss McCauley passing away Thursday evening, February 17. Her funeral was held Saturday, February 19, conducted by Revs. Coleman, McAllister, and Willson.

Mrs. Law grew rapidly worse and died Sabbath, February 20. Her funeral was held February 21 conducted by Revs. Sproull, Coleman, and Willson. Her remains were interred at New Concord, Ohio, February 22, accompanied by Mrs. R. J. George and Mrs. J. W. Sproull.

Miss Ewing (the matron) was worn out and tired after so much anxiety, and we felt she would not be able to help with the washing so the services of Miss Gordon was procured to do the washing the following week.

We are very glad to report that Mrs. McFerron is able to go around again and every thing is moving along nicely. Mr. Hunter and Mr. Coleman are both well, but are feeling very sad over the deaths that have occurred, Mrs. Law’s especially.

—Respectfully submitted, Miss Sadie E. Caskey and Mrs. Mary Duncan