HAVERHILL — Until earlier this month, Janice and Albion Estes’ home in Haverhill was teeming with activity.
For decades, the couple ran the assisted living facility On The Green, which Janice Estes founded in 1982, out of their historic house on Dartmouth College Highway. During its existence, the roughly 5,000-square-foot home served some 66 residents in total.
The group was “a chosen family,” Janice Estes said.
But at 82 years old, she’s ready for a new chapter. A couple of months ago, she announced to clients and their families that she was shuttering the business.
“It’s just the right time,” she said.
Now that the last residents have moved out, with many of them relocating to Riverglen House, an assisted living facility in Littleton, N.H., the Estes are adjusting to their new pace of life and quieter home.
“It’s a mixture of emotions,” Janice Estes said in an interview at the couple’s dining room table last Wednesday.
Built in 1769, the home originally belonged to Col. Charles Johnston, one of Haverhill’s founders.
Below the foundation is a tunnel that was at one point used to shelter slaves, Albion Estes said.
“This was a safe house,” Janice Estes said. For her, On The Green is a continuation of that history.
An only child who grew up in the Boston area, she’s been working with older people since her 30s. “Be Well” reads the license plate on her Volkswagen Beetle.
When she started On The Green, shortly after most of the couple’s kids had left the nest, she was working at Glencliff Home for the Elderly, a state-run, long-term care home in Glencliff, N.H.
Inspired by her boss, who started an assisted living home in Tilton, N.H., she decided to follow suit.
Since then, On The Green has been licensed for 11 residents at a time, some of whom stayed at the house for more than 20 years.
The Estes cared for residents mostly on their own, with the help of a couple of long-term employees. “We were all a team,” Janice Estes said.
On The Green provided 24-hour-support, laundry and housekeeping services, meals, medication supervision, assistance with daily living, and regular outings to the nearby senior center, among other activities.
At the time of the closure, all of On The Green’s residents were accessing the facility’s service through the Medicaid program, Choices For Independence, or CFI. The state paid roughly $26,000 a year per person. Low reimbursement rates for the program meant that On The Green was never highly profitable, and the Estes both worked other jobs.
“All-CFI beds are rare because you have to subsidize them with other funds,” Lily Wellington, the executive director of the New Hampshire Commission on Aging, said.
In a rural state like New Hampshire, businesses often struggle to find enough care workers to staff their facilities, especially since the coronavirus pandemic, Ellen Flaherty, vice president of the Dartmouth Health Geriatric Center of Excellence.
On top of that, as the people live longer, aging residents are often sicker and require more care all while resources become more limited, Flaherty added.
For the Estes, running On The Green as has been all encompassing, and Albion Estes estimates the couple has spent only 17 nights away from home in the past 40 or so years.
For Janice Estes, the responsibilities that came with running On The Green were a choice she made freely.
“If you don’t want to do it, you don’t do it,” she said.
Now 69, Albion Estes is dealing with several health issues of his own, including heart problems and colitis, an inflammation of the large intestine.
“I did everything for everybody. I can’t do anything for myself now,” he said.
The Estes are thinking about downsizing, though they plan to stay in the Upper Valley where they have family, including a son who lives in Haverhill.
They’re unsure if assisted living would ever be in their own future.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Janice Estes said.
But Janice Estes doesn’t have plans to stop working anytime soon. She still works in social services at Lebanon Center Genesis, a nursing home, while Albion Estes runs a gun repair and manufacturing workshop on the Haverhill property.
“Why would I want to just stay home and do nothing? Being older, part of it is being youthful and making a difference,” Janice Estes said.
Many of the residents and families that come through Genesis’ doors struggle to make sense of the paperwork involved with elder care.
“I’m still making and effecting change in the workplace. So it’s either that I’m going to do it and get some money for it, or I’m going to start running for representative or something to advocate because I think our seniors need that,” she said.