For veterans, the Home is their home

Jack McFadden is a 20-year Army veteran. Took shrapnel in his leg when the helicopter he was in was shot down in Vietnam. Has crashed a couple of other times since. Survived them all.

“I guess you could say I’ve lived an exciting life,” the 74-year-old said Tuesday.

But McFadden knows he’s in his twilight years. He knows with his health conditions he could never live alone. That’s why he enjoys the Montana Veterans Home. They take good care of him here. Good food. Plenty of activities. Sunday drives in the country. Shopping trips.

For a short time he was in a private home in Kalispell.

Hated it.

He was sick and it seemed like they fed him chicken three times a day. Their idea of an activity was to gather everyone around in a circle in a big room and just sit.

Hour after hour.

Now there’s serious talk the state will privatize the home and McFadden doesn’t think much of it.

“I think it’s a crock of (crap),” he said. “I don’t think it’s right. What they’re trying to do. This is the top-rated home in the area. This is one of my benefits, now they’re screwing with it.”

Korean War veteran Nate Syverson has similar sentiments about the home. He’s lived here 10 years. A retired teacher, Syverson was living alone and almost died.

When he lived alone, he was eating out of tin cans and then putting them back in fridge. The result was food poisoning. He said the medical staff at the home saved him. Not just from the food poisoning, but his mental health as well.

“I have to admit, I thought about suicide,” he said. The 79-year-old Polson native didn’t do well alone.

“Here, they have a lot of activities that keep us from getting depressed,” he said. Like McFadden, he raved about the good food.

“Look at the support they’ve got here,” he said. “It’s home.”

McFadden and Syverson both have cozy, but complete rooms, with private baths. The cost is about $1,500 a month — affordable on their retirement plans. They both fear that if the home is privatized, the rates will rise sharply and the service will diminish.

Gone will be the Sunday drives.

“I’d rather be young and beautiful,” Syverson joked. “But it doesn’t work that way.”