They found it!
 

Last year I made my mother a friendship braid quilt in her favorite colors. 6 months later she was moved to a nursing home from assisted living. She could not take most of her favorite nick-nacks with her but she was allowed to take the quilt. Beside some pictures, that is all she was able to take with her. Last weekend when I visited her - the quilt was gone. Needless to say I brought it to their attention and 4 days later they found it. Whew - now I can sleep tonight.

Wonderful news, I am so glad she has her quilt back and you can rest easy.

Make her a spare quilt and chain it to her bed. :) :)

I know in my mother's rest home room she has her quilts, but she has all kinds of lap blankets and afghans in her room that aren't hers. All the staff are very familiar with her quilts because she talks about them all the time and about how her daughter made them for her. One set of her color coordinated pillowcases were bleached to the point that they were no longer recognizable. I had to make her a new set and now they are much more careful with them. I didn't get angry, just stated that I had done things like that myself. :thumbup: I could tell the staff was happy I didn't get upset.

my sister broke her hip and was in a treatment place. they sent her home during a hurricane and her quilt with her name stitched in the border front, wasn't there when she got back. anything not nailed down goes home with workers it seems. sad but true.

I'm glad your Mom got her quilt back. Lots of thieves in this world. So sad they steal stuff from the elderly or someone not able to fight for their stuff.

I am curious, did you push to know *where* they found it? For "future reference"?

Jan in VA

I bought my mother some nice new shoes and then they were gone. I asked If the had seen her shoes the reply was the black ones no I haven't seen them hmm I had not said the color yet.

we all need to put "tracking" devices in shoes, quilts, etc!! That would fix em!!!

I had finished a quilt mil had started but did not think about the need for a label. It has not been located as far as I know. I just hope someone is using and enjoying it since I'm not sure she even remembers my bringing it to her. Although she did express appreciation at the time.

When my MIL had to move from assisted living into the nursing home, the administrator insisted we take her wedding ring home. It was a fairly large stone she had gotten from her aunt. We were told that if we didn't take it, it would be gone within a week. Many of her "little" things disappeared. Sad, but true!

My neighbor ask me to do some embroidery on a sweatshirt jacket for her mother that is in a nursing home. They wanted her name in big letters so it wouldn't get stolen, since she has a odd name not many would want it. Then we added a pretty hummingbird to it. Sad with the cost of living there that your things are not more secure.

My mothers false teeth disappeared when she was in a nursing home. The staffs reply, 'all valuables are suppose to be kept in the office safe' Now I ask you what would someone want with another persons false teeth and why would one keep their false teeth in a safe when you need them in your mouth all the time except at night?
They never were found.

It didn't matter in the long run and, actually, my father-in-law would have smiled about it; but, my father-in-law was buried without shoes. Someone took them from his room in the nursing home after he died and before his body was transported to the nursing home.

We all hoped they fit.

Pat

Midnight shoppers
 

In many cases in assisted living homes it is the residents who are the midnight shoppers. My mothers quilts kept going missing and then showing up. When my mom passed away and we cleaned out her room we found lots of stuff that wasn't hers, just things she liked those things.

The care takers try as they might can't stop it from happening.

Sylvia

My 95 year old Mom is also in a nursing home. Little things have disappeared from her room, too. The strangest one: the wedding photo of her eldest grandson and his wife. Whoever took it...do they want my son and DIL as relatives? I'm sure I can arrange that! LOL Unfortunately, my mom has advanced Alzheimer's and doesn't recognize anyone (including me) anymore, so aside from me being a bit miffed about the missing picture (frame is still there, so I know they didn't want the frame), in the long run, she wouldn't know the people in the photo anyway.

The nursing home Mom is in is better than average care wise, so I count my blessings. A missing photo...oh well.

Anita

Years ago, one of the patients at my mother's nursing home had a couple of nice dresses "adopted". Since she was in a wheelchair, her daughter solved the problem by taking a permanent marker and putting her name on the back of the skirt in large letters. Couldn't see it when she was sitting down, but it sure showed up when someone else put it on and stood up.

I'm sure that would be great for quilt shows. Irena Bluhm lost a quilt worth about $10K because somebody didn't take care when they sent it back to her.

Since the frame is still there, is there any possibility she took the photo out because she didn't "recognize" the people in the photo?

I worked as a Nurse's aide when I was in my 20's (needed timeout from the upholstery business). We had thefts amongst other residents. We had a "kidnapping" of a Lady's baby (one of those real looking baby dolls). I found her in another residents room. When I tried to take the baby home to her ""Mom", the Lady who had her yanked my ponytail
and brought me to my knees. All I could do was scream for help, that lady had a death grip on 4 feet of my hair and wasn't letting go!
There were other small thefts mostly brushes, eyeglasses slippers etc. But I don't ever recall someone stealing teeth.

What a brilliant idea.

makes me afraid of getting old-my important things are my DH and dogs. I do like to cuddle under my quilts tho and would hate for them to go missing.
Logn way from nursing home-I hope!!!

Have to be careful (and I hate to say this) but there are those beings out there who take what does not belong to them. And it could've been an accident. I saw on one of the posts this week, one of the members worked a label into a flower on a (I believe) a table runner for the bridal table. You may want to try that when you go back. Like maybe stitch it into the darker material with a slightly lighter thread or vice versa. A friend of mine embroiders her labels on the back sometimes in the binding and then takes a fine point permanent marker and goes over it. If anyone tries to remove the thread the marker is still there. So very happy you were able to get it back. Gave my stepmother a chenille sweater of mine while she was in the hospital. It came up missing when she was in the shower. On the inside I had an ID # on the inside of the label. An aide had it on. I brought it up to security since the aide worked on the same floor. We got it back and she was fired. I paid good money for that sweater and my step really liked it.

Oh Boy! My mom is 90, in a nursing home, it feels like all I do is play detective, tracking down and keeping track of what little she has left of her earthly possessions. Whether it be the charger to her cell phone to brand new bra's brand Capri's, her socks, geod...! it's everything!! My sister insists on sending her cash for her billfold $20-40, It is gone before I ever see it.. I get so tired of being a cop/detective every time I visit. My mom suffers from some dementia related to advanced Parkinson's or is sleeping or out of her room, it stresses my mom out so much when her things come up missing.
Interesting fact: If the laundry help misplaces articles of clothing say in another residents closet/drawers, they are not allowed to retrieve it...they can put clothes away, but not remove. I understand, but doesn't help matters as well.
Get this: late Feb. I noticed my mom did not have socks on, only part of her foot was exposed from under her blanket, I asked why she did not have socks on she said they hurt her toe, I peeled back the blanket and found both of her feet were BLACK AND BLUE AND SWOLLEN, I inquired to the nurse who knew nothing about it, mom said they had been that way for a week, I asked for X-rays, her toe was broken. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything, nobody reported the B/B and swelling, Nobody knew anything....Needless to say we had meetings, phone calls, all they could say was they were there for my mothers best interest. The person of interest quit before she could be questioned.
I asked that a new policy be put into place that staff wear first name only name tags, they did say because of this incident staff it would be policy, hasn't happened yet...
Sorry and Thank you for opening this thread and letting me vent!!
JB

I went thru the Missing "whatever"when my Mom was in a nursing home.These patients are the easiest people to treat badly or steal from.

Who would most ppl believe,someone with memory problems or a "normal" employee ? Mom's wedding ring,engagement ring,all her costume jewelry,all her pretties,clothing,a quilt I made & recovered,boxes of candy her son gave her,lotions,the list is endless.

I was leaving one day when I saw her quilt folded on the back of a rocking chair.I walked in,took it too the directors office,then it went home with me.Was easy to take it there,then fold it up & take it home.My feeling is workers from the top down know about the stealing,but it isn't important to them.

I know that story. It's a shame we have to worry about things like that.

I have a lot of yarn and make granny squares when I need something mindless to do. I had 2 large plastic tubs full so decided to put them together. A friend volunteered at a nursing home here and said that there were many residents who didn't get anything for Christmas. She was collecting stuff for gifts. The Activity Director said that they were in need of covers for the residents and that they didn't have extra blankets when the residents were in the gerry chairs. I gladly gave 7 afghans and helped my friend deliver what she had collected. A couple yrs later I was in a quilt group looking for a humanitarian project. They knew I had taken afghans to a nursing home. I went to talk to them about quilts. We talked and the activities director said that she recognized me. I thought I recognized her too. We talked about the afghans , that I hadn't seen any on any resident. She said that they all "disappeared" within a couple weeks. That is the fault of the nursing home to not catch the thieves and make examples of them. Only a thief would take a blanket from an elderly person who desperately needed it and had nothing else.

when my MIL was in the final stages of her life, she was in a nursing home. i noticed that clothes that were sent to the laundry, were passed out to anyone. name or no name on them.
that's because some patients didn't even have clothes to wear. the crochet items that my MIL had made, which i placed in her room on the wall, to display her talents, stayed there. no one touched them. but we were there everyday. i just wanted the workers to realize that my MIL was valued, that we loved her, and to relate to her and her talents. they did a magnificient job. too bad, not all places are the same. but the nurses and aides there were just wonderful.

My step mom had a small suitcase with pictures of her wedding in 1928. She was the only daughter of a large Polish family and had a hugh wedding. The photos were her pride and joy. She loved to look at them and show anyone that would look. She had them with her in the nursing home, and they dissapeared.

I wonder about anyone that would take the last belonging that meant anything to an eldery woman. By this time, she had outlived two husbands and lived in her memories.

It seems that all of us share the same story about items in Mom's/Dad's room going "missing". We experienced the same thing with Mom while she was there, but also, in talking about the "things at home", she wanted us to go get them and give them to "so & so". (We didn't) She even gave away an artificial flower arrangement bought especially for her room. Theft is a HUGE problem and is committed by the poorly paid staff as well as some of the residents. I do not know the answer, but I know I talked to the administrator on a regular basis. It was always surprising how things were hanging in her closet that did not belong and other things went missing. Just sayin'.... We'll all be there one day, so how can we "fix" it now? Maybe criminal background checks for both the staff and the residents?

My mom was in a nursing home for two years. She had dementia and Parkensens. One of us visited her everyday and it seems something else was missing everyday! One day I was asked if I could bring my mom some new underpants. I thought that was an odd request because my mom was in diapers. I went to K-Mart, bought some panties, and sure enough two days later there were none in her drawer. My mom had breast cancer so she had a breast prosthesis in her bra. The idiots washed and dried her silicone breast and of course it melted into a odd shape mess. They had to replace it and boy was that expensive. One day I asked for an inventory of all my mom's belongings so I could buy her some new things. They gave me the list, I compared it to the inventory they gave me when she arrived and it was no surprise most of her things were missing. I filed a claim with the nursing home, they sent it to their insurance and I got paid. During that process I moved my mom to a different home and it was so much better. She went to the new home with all new things and she still had them when she passed away. I was happy to see and know she well dressed and not a rag muffin when she passed.

It is hard enough to have your parent in a facility without having the few things they value stolen. Glad your Mom's quilt was found. I guess this happens everywhere. How sad that so many people we trust to care for our loved ones are thieves.

Because they have a community laundry where everyone's clothes are done and all of the guests are not under lock and key, sometimes things come up missing. Most of the time they are found and returned. I am so glad that it has been returned.

Am so glad my loved one (just a friend) is in a nursing home that is top notch and she has never had a problem. Has been there for 4 years now. There are good ones and bad ones. NO ONE should suffer an injury and no one be aware of it. That is sheer neglect. Does this mean she did not have a bath for a week? Very sad situation for her. Sorry that things like this happen anywhere. It is inexcusable.

Yep! THE STAFF STEALS. My best friend's Dad who, was blind had his rolex stolen in a matter of a few minutes of being in a room at the hospital. My friend left her sunglasses on a table in his room one day, remembered when she got to her car, they were gone when she rushed back to the room. This was a highend exlusive facility.

My daughter was in a head on collision, when they brought her personal things from the emergency room, her gold necklace was there, clasp closed, but her diamond drop was missing. When we inquired, they said, it must have been cut off during her treatment, our question it wasn't cut, it was clasped together, so someone stole the diamond. They did nothing.
Another story, our neighbor died in her home, we did not discover this until a week later, the EMT's and coroner removed her. A few days later, her son asked if we had any idea where her diamond rings were. They said she always put them in her bathroom dish when she was working outside. Of course, we did not know, but it had to have been the EMT;s or the police....VERY SAD.

My SIL is in an AlZ unit and her favorite purple fleece blanket disappeared. Her daughter looked in every room and finally found it and took it back to her. She finally took it home to keep it safe. There now handmade afghans on every bed in the ALZ unit.

When we moved my prim and proper aunt from assisted living to a nursing home, I packed up her things for the move. Tucked in her dresser drawers were billfolds, jewelry, and other little things that were not hers. Apparently, she took things that she thought were her's or her husband's who had been dead for many years. My aunt was a wonderful woman who would never have ever thought of taking something that belonged to someone else. As she got older, her mind didn't work like is used to and the ability to reason was gone. I returned everything I found to the staff with our apologies. The staff was very kind and understanding.

The first day I started as a nurse's aide I was 20 and had an abrupt introduction to an alzheimer's resident. She would take silverware and hide them in her clothing. She would take anything she could and hide it in her bed or her clothes she was wearing. She didn't really know what she took they were just things to her. So the teeth could disappear that way too.