Dear Employees:
The trustees of Deutsches Altenheim want to extend our profound gratitude for your service to our residents in this difficult time. Their care is our one mission and highest priority, along with the safety and well-being of all of you who provide that care, directly or indirectly.
While we take pride in the home’s reputation for excellence, we realize that its good name has always rested on the shoulders of its staff. Your jobs require patience and professionalism in the best of times, and now you are being asked for unprecedented levels of commitment. Yet, your efforts are mostly unseen as you work in semi-isolation, or from home, without the visits from families and friends that sustain both the residents and the staff—separated even from your patients and your colleagues by all of the precautions that COVID-19 demands.
Words cannot express how deeply we appreciate your bravery and compassion. We know that you are facing many difficulties as you work to keep the home running and to help our residents in any way you can. The world will never see all the good you have done, or fully understand the sorrow this disease has brought to our home.
Deutsches Altenheim has survived many challenges—this one, we did not see coming. In the midst of this crisis, though, we have been blessed by an outpouring of support from families, friends, and neighbors. They, like the trustees, are inspired by your dedication. We are proud of you and look forward to a brighter future, together. Until then, our hearts are with you.
Yours very truly,
The Board of Trustees
Genevieve MacLellan, President
Hans P. Birle, Esq., Vice President
Heinz W. Brinkhaus, Treasurer
Hans H. Toegel, Secretary/Clerk
Barbara Bridge
Heinz R. Brinkhaus
John Carberry
Alan W. Eilertson
Dirk M. Hentschel, MD
Marie Schwartz
Carol Soeldner
Roswitha Stehling
Philipp von Rosenstiel, MD
C.A. (Sandy) von Stackelberg
Henry Winkler, Emeritus
Michael J. Winter
Download the letter: Staff Letter from the Board of Trustees