AARP The Magazine - April/May 2012

so intrigued that she applied. The
money helps McGraw and her hus-
band pay bills, but McGraw mainly
wanted to help David and to pay trib-
ute to her late father, also a veteran.
“I treat him like I’d hope somebody
would have treated my father when
he was alive,” she says.
David had once prepared and
loaded bombs for U.K.-based bomb-
ers that attacked the Nazis dur-
ing the war. When the Air Force
serviceman finally came home, he
settled down with his wife, Beatrice,
and raised a child. But after Beatrice
“I treat him like I’d hope
somebody would have
treated my father.”
died a few years ago, he began a slow
decline: Living alone in Pennsylvania,
he’d lost some of his hearing and
started eating poorly. When he
forgot to take his meds and fell a few
times, he ended up in the hospital.
His daughter, Marsha Lenzini,
65, helped him when she could, but
she worked full-time during the day.
“I used to see the red light blinking
on my answering machine, and I’d
get so nervous,” she says. Though
she wanted to be there, she couldn’t
afford to leave her job when doctors
said David needed full-time care.
And she didn’t want her father to be
in a nursing home. So when a nurse
told them about the VA foster pro-
gram, Lenzini was excited about the
possibilities. She and her dad met
with the McGraws and decided to
have David make the move. “I knew
George and Naomi were good people
and that they would take good care
of him,” she says. “And I was right.”
McGraw and David admit the
transition wasn’t totally easy at first.
David didn’t want to lose his inde-
pendence, and the McGraws had to
adjust to a new housemate. But the
three soon settled in.
David now has his own room in the
couple’s mobile home, and he watch-
es the news daily, savors McGraw’s
meat loaf dinners (“The food here is
excellent,” he quips), and spontane-
ously breaks into song—usually belt-
ing out old Tony Bennett numbers,
though he also loves music by the late
Whitney Houston.
His daughter and grandson visit
every month or two—they live about
100 miles away in
Littlestown, Penn-
sylvania—and check
in weekly via phone.
“I do a lot of eating
and sleeping,” David
says, laughing. “I get
treated very, very
well. The best one could expect.”
Patience is key, she says. She
and her husband, 59, spend time
together after David goes to bed,
and occasionally ask her sister-in-
law to stay with David so they can
go to dinner—“Otherwise we’d go
nuts,” she jokes. But, she adds, “the
joy outweighs the problems.” The
couple take David to their relatives’
houses for dinners and holidays,
and they expect to be together until
the end of David’s life. “ Really,”
says McGraw, “he’s a part of the
family.” —Christina Ianzito
Learn more about the Veterans Affairs
Medical Foster Home Program at
va.gov/geriatrics/mfh.

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