Judy Swartzell was only a few months into her retirement from Bickford when she got the call: They needed her to come back.

It was the early days of the pandemic, an incredibly difficult time for everyone associated with senior living. After more than 25 years in roles including director of operations and senior vice president of resident services, Judy returned to Bickford at age 72 as the covid hotline nurse. “It was very intense,” remembers Judy, who trained as a nurse in her home state of Minnesota.

For 14 months she answered calls from Bickford employees who had either been diagnosed with covid or failed health screenings at the door. At a time when physicians sometimes turned away patients with covid symptoms, Judy spent 12 hours per day, five days a week counseling employees and their families through covid infection, unrelated illnesses, and even mental health crises.

Serving her fellow employees was a fitting conclusion to Judy’s service to Bickford. When she joined the company as one of the first employees outside of the Eby family, Bickford had just one building, in Olathe, Kansas. “I knew all the residents, knew their families, knew the employees,” Judy says. By the time she left, Bickford had grown to 58 branches.

“It was very fulfilling work,” Judy recalls. “In many cases we gave residents a new lease on life and they actually functioned a lot better than they had in a long time.”

Now back in retirement, Judy enjoys reading, spending time with her husband, five granddaughters and one great-grandson, and keeping a busy church and social calendar. But Judy isn’t entirely removed from Bickford: Her daughter Heidi designs buildings for the company and Judy still sometimes joins her on site visits.

“Bickford was an important part of my life,” Judy says. “I felt like I was giving the best to the residents at the end stages of their life.”