Just eight months before Pearl Harbor, an elderly lady, with no children of her own, did something good for her community—and her world. Irish immigrant Mary Ranken Jordan, along with her husband, Clay, opened the Ranken Jordan Home for Convalescent Crippled Children. It was April ninth, 1941.

Mary and Clay had used their considerable wealth to build something of lasting value for human kind. The Ranken Jordan home was a peaceful and safe place for children recovering from polio and tuberculosis.

Helen Haywood dedicated a good chunk of her working life to the convalescent home. She not only worked there—she also lived upstairs. Helen was hired by Mrs. Jordan herself back in 1945.

Jeffrey Hogan first came to Ranken Jordan in February 1968—about a week before his sixth birthday. He would become a frequent visitor to the convalescent home. During the next 12 years, Jeffrey was admitted as an inpatient 15 times. The little boy with cerebral palsy lived at Ranken Jordan for more than 16-hundred days during his childhood. About four and a half full years of his life.
After a dozen years of care, 18-year-old Jeffrey went home—and stayed home. It was April, 1980.

Some 30 years later, another teenager—and her family—needed the kind of complete recovery plan that only Ranken Jordan could provide. It was July Fourth, 2010. A day for patriotism and celebration for lots of folks—but not the Detwiler family. That afternoon, 15-year-old Cecilia and her older brother Joe suffered massive injuries when their truck veered off the road and crashed head-on into a tree.

After that long and gut-wrenching rescue, they were airlifted to a local hospital. Joe stayed there for several months because he had a brain injury. Cecilia spent the first month recovering from injuries—and several leg surgeries. Then she transferred to Ranken Jordan for therapy and rehab. From her first day, she was determined to get better. And battle through her pain.
Cecilia's weapon of choice? Her voice.

The common thread that spans the decades and connects Jeffrey Hogan and Cecilia Detwiler? Care Beyond the Bedside. The guiding principle that shines a warm light of compassion on a child’s winding road to recovery. A principle that reminds us of Mary Ranken Jordan’s words from long ago: “Consider the children first in all we do.”