Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Catherine accomplished many goals in her 99 years. She was an elder in the United Methodist Church where she taught and mentored countless young people. She had history of leadership, stemming from 1927, when she was one of the first four women to attend a certificate class at Emory University.

But as Catherine moved into her sunset years at the Lutheran Towers facility in Georgia, she had one regret she just couldn’t shake. She always wanted to graduate from Emory.

National nonprofit organization Second Wind Dreams got word of Catherine’s desire, dressed her in a cap and gown, and presented her with the distinction of being a member of Emory University’s Class of 1028.

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Rita Kittower had no choice but to put her husband of nearly 50 years into an assisted living facility after he suffered a major stroke that diminished his memory and left him unable to care for himself. Mrs. Kittower paid $75,000 a year to the upscale Silverado Senior Living facility in Calabasas, Calif., to provide her husband Elmore with the best possible care, according to the Los Angeles Times.

When he died, staff told her Mr. Kittower died peacefully in his sleep.

But when Mrs. Kittower received a call the day after burying her husband from an employee at Silverado, she was devastated. The caller said that shortly before Kittower died she saw a fellow employee punch Kittower’s husband’s face and wrap a towel around his head as if to suffocate him.

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Joanne Kessler believed she was doing the right thing when in 2006 she moved her mother, Luveda Fern Kessler, from another assisted living facility to Villa Valencia Health Care Center in Orange County, Calif., to be closer to her. The elder Kessler had had both hip- and knee-replacement surgeries and used a walker for mobility. She needed assistance getting out of bed and to the bathroom, a nurse noted.

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