‘Make Them Laugh and Keep Them Thinking’: One of the Keys to Somerset Gardens Success

Luis Santiago had just retired, and not for long before he decided to take a full-time job as the Dining Room Supervisor at Somerset Gardens in Plainview, NY, an Assisted Living and Memory Care community in Long Island.  

“I like working with the residents, the older generation,” he said. “I like to make them laugh; I like to keep them thinking.”

Santiago, formerly a Food Services Manager at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center, quickly became enamored by his daily interactions with seniors, and he was pulled in by Somerset Gardens unique, family-oriented environment.

Those qualities have kept Erica Mosley and Dolores Grey here, each in their 22^nd year at the community.

“It’s been a pleasure,” Mosley said. “I love my residents, I love my coworkers.”

“I love it,” Grey said. “I interact well with the residents. I love them, and I love my job.”

Somerset Gardens Assisted Living Executive Director Marla Butbul smiling with a resident in the dining room of the community in Plainview, NY in Long Island.

Executive Director Marla Butbul has worked in assisted living for more than 40 years.

“I knew I was destined for it, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere,” she said. “And it just brings me a lot of joy when I work with the geriatric population and see that I can make a difference to them.”

To see that difference if you haven’t been to the community, it requires navigating to Facebook and viewing the community’s page. The fun, the warmth, and the love are palpable.

“They can come to us for anything,” Butbul said. “We are here for them to make them comfortable because it is their home.”

Somerset Gardens Assisted Living team.

That’s why Jazzmine Mays is so persistent with communication and keeping families informed about their loved ones in Memory Care.

“We speak if not every day maybe once a week,” said Mays, the Memory Care Case Manager. “I check in with them let them know how their loved one is doing. Because, essentially, they become my loved one, too.”

That personal connection is what truly makes the difference at this community – and it makes all the difference for Santiago.

“It means a lot to me to see the residents smile,” he said.