MOUNT GILEAD — Woodside Village Care Center honored Annette Wise, LPN, for 40 dedicated years of service this week.
“Annette has a great heart and is one of my most compassionate nurses,” said Woodside Director of Nursing Christa Kingman. “She is a fantastic worker and always reliable.”
Wise said she likes that Woodside is family-oriented and caring.
“I have always enjoyed working with the elderly,” Wise said and told how her mother said even at four years old she would go across the street to sit with an elderly lady.
Wise started at Woodside as a teenager the day after graduation from Northmor High School on June 6, 1981. That was two years after it opened in 1979.
She was employed as an aide by owner Bill Casto and worked as an aide for three years while she earned her LPN certificate from North Central State College.
“I’m now seeing new generations with the children of residents who were here many years ago as well as people I worked with,” Wise said. “It really is a family here. I have had my parents and grandparents here.”
Working at Woodside is also a family tradition. Her sister Sherry Wirick worked at Woodside as an aide for more than 20 years and her mother Lola Denman worked there for a few years in the 1980s. Her niece Andrea Thomas worked there as an aide while she was in nursing school.
Wise and her husband Jeff have been married 38 years and have two sons, Eric and Robert.
She values the continuity of care at Woodside and says that anticipating the needs of patients is most valuable given her years of experience.
“I have no plans for retirement. I like working here and enjoy the people,” Wise said.
