CASSOPOLIS — When she worked at the courthouse, Barb Lepel was known for writing to pen pals in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France.
“I would have loved to travel,” she said. “Now it’s not feasible.”

Lepel, 69, is part of a Region IV Area Agency on Aging program called Nursing Facility Transition Initiative (NFTI).
Through NFTI, the St. Joseph-based tri-county agency helps seniors living in nursing homes move back to their community of choice, which, for Lepel, is her home of 15 years — Barn Swallow Apartments.
“We help eliminate barriers to transition that normal nursing home discharge planning cannot,” according to Emily Williams, AAA quality manager. Lepel was one of nine entering NFTI in 2010, followed by three in 2011 and two in 2012.
Lepel was Cass County’s last switchboard operator, handling up to 600 calls a day for 10 years.
She worked at Cass County Animal Control five years, then Edwardsburg attorney William LaBre until a fall on the ice broke her left leg and left her disabled and unable to drive. She spent six months in a nursing home, but was able to get around with a walker.
In 2009, Lepel suffered a stroke. “That’s when I started working with Area Agency and its fabulous program to get out of the nursing home. When I had my stroke, I ended up in Heartland in Three Rivers. After six months, I was able to come home with their help.”
The stroke limited movement of her left hand, so “Pam does all my cleaning, cooking, shopping, picks up my prescriptions, does my personal care. (AAA) contracts her through Child and Family Services. She’s in and out 26 hours a week, cleaning me up and feeding me in the morning when she comes home from her regular job. She’s a blessing. Pam has been my caregiver since ’03. She’s my friend, like family.”
Lepel has been a nanny and at one time was a caregiver herself for a woman in Dowagiac.
“I even studied organ under the assistant organist at Chicago Stadium. I’m afraid of heights and that organ loft, you had to climb a ladder from the balcony,” she said. “It was a five-keyboard pipe organ whose bass pedals could vibrate the whole building.”
Born in East Chicago, the only child graduated from high school in Highland, Ind.
“It’s a terrific adjustment to expect someone to make when they’ve lived an active life to being confined to a chair,” she said. “I had excellent therapists at Heartland, but I never would have made it home without Area Agency. They are very caring people. I love living here.”