- December 16, 2025
The county approved contracts with Elder Source Sept. 7, awarding the organization a total $167,000 for elder-care services, including the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative.
Ed Prybylski has been married to his wife, Eileen, for the past 56 years, and for the past three, she hasn’t spoken a word.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2001, she has spent almost every weekday since November 2003 at Elder Source’s Adult Day Care, 1000 Belle Terre Blvd., standing as the clinic’s most tenured client.
Before the daycare, Prybylski would have friends and neighbors watch her while he ran errands. But when she wandered out of their P-section home one day in 2003, and he found her at Wadsworth Elementary School, he knew he needed more help. None of the couple’s six children and 16 grandchildren lived in the city.
“She’s mobile,” he said. “She’s managing. She’s still a joy to be with.”
But having a place that cares for her 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. takes a huge load off his shoulders.
At the Sept. 7 County Commission meeting, the board approved $48,177 to the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative, and $118,813 to the Community Care for the Elderly organization, most of which comes from state grants and general county dollars. Funds are awarded annually.
“Without the kind of support that the county supplies — and it’s a blessing, I’m telling you — we would be dead, half of us,” Prybylski said of himself and the rest of the spouses and caregivers who use the clinic. He calls the workers “lifesavers,” and “saints.”
Inside the daycare
The day starts with snacks and a mug of coffee. Some read the newspaper. Others blink, their eyes lost somewhere in the ceiling.
Janet Jensen, the daycare’s head nurse who has been in elder care 18 years, tries to learn about her clients early. She already knows each suffers from a form of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, stroke or Parkinson’s disease, but she’s curious about what they did for a living, how many kids they have, what their hobbies were.
She feels it gives her a starting point.
“Trust is a huge thing here,” she said, showing off photographs from one client — Louie — who worked in newspapers. She pulls out a picture of President John F. Kennedy wiping his brow as onlookers reached out to touch him.
“Isn’t that cool?” she asks. “He took that.”
She pulls out a close-up of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
“The families want to know they’re leaving their loved ones with people who care,” she said. “(And) I want them to feel like they’re coming to see friends. … I just love people. … I really feel like it’s almost a calling.”
She and three other nurses care for 20 seniors at the clinic. The county took over the service in 2004, adapting the building into a fully dedicated daycare in 2005. There is currently a waiting list of 30 others, who Joanna Hinkel, Flagler County senior services program manager, says receive help in other forms.
“All of the Alzheimer’s county money is pretty much focused here,” she said.
But other funds benefit the Meals on Wheels program, in-house homemaking, personal care, health support, transportation and companionship services.
Residents receive aid based on a priority. They’re charged based on income and other state guidelines. Hinkel said it’s possible for a client to pay as low as $15 per month for full-time aid.
“It is designed to get these services to people, so (payment) is not outrageous,” she said. “On the state side, we’ve been lucky. There haven’t been significant cuts on those levels.”
Jensen and staff serve hot lunches daily, dispense meds, play games and celebrate birthdays. Volunteers come to play music, bring pets and lead social activities.
Jensen remembers a former client, a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran.
“He was just a gentle soul,” she said.
They would dance together, every Monday, to a song by Anne Murray called “Can I Have This Dance (For the Rest of My Life).” Hearing it still makes Jensen cry.
“It just doesn’t stop here,” she said. “We’ll visit people when they go to the hospital because they miss us, and I miss them. ... I’m not kidding when I say they become my family.”
To apply for aid, call 586-2324.
