I’m writing about the sudden disappearance last November of our Friday Harbor nursing home, the Life Care Center, and the dispersal of its excellent fleet of nurses and staff. That was an enormous loss for our community. The most important thing this community could now do would be to organize and then facilitate the construction in Friday Harbor of a world-class nursing facility.

In the past, we helped finance the building of the hospital, which was a huge project. Some would regard as equally important a nursing home to care for our aging population.

We, whose lives are tied to these islands, are now forced to go far from home and family when faced with the unpredictable debilities of advanced age.

Nearly everyone will eventually experience serious illness or some degree of incapacitation, and many of us will have to seek help outside our homes. A local nursing facility properly prepared to house and care for us in our final years, near to our families and friends, is something that would greatly benefit most of us.

I urge people in the islands to think seriously about this and do what they can to promote action.

Bob Weaver

Anacortes, WA

(Weaver moved to Anacortes from the Friday Harbor Life Care Center when it closed last November. He lived on the island for five years.)

(Editor’s note: Weaver’s daughter, Anna Scruton, wrote to the Journal to inform readers that Weaver also lived on Waldron Island for more than five decades before moving to the Life Care Center.)