Director says she’s found a home at Hardin Hills

It has only been a month since Sharon Huston took over leadership as director of the Hardin Hills Health Center in Kenton, but in that short time, she said, she has found a home.

Caring for senior citizens is something Huston has done professionally for more than 40 years as a nurse and as an administrator.

Her career path was clear to her at an early age, said Huston.

She learned the caring side of nursing when she was a girl helping her family care for her elderly grandfather on their farm near Marion.

At that time, Huston said, there were not the resources which are available today to help care for aging family members at home.

Their doctor visited the farm and taught the family what needed to be done to comfort the grandfather, said Huston.

“Farm life was much different then,” she said.

As a student through middle school and high school, the River Valley graduate set her sights on a career where she would comfort the elderly.

“As I got older, that desire grew only stronger,” she said.

“I learned to care for my grandfather and it stuck with me.”

Starting in area nursing homes, Huston began to concentrate more on the administration side of the long-term care nursing world.

At one point in her career, she was in charge of 19 nursing homes throughout Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio.

“Back then, my time was spent mostly on planes and in hotel rooms,” said Huston.

“It really wears on you after a while.”

Following that experience, Huston accepted the leadership of a nursing home in North Carolina, where she stayed until 2015, when she and her husband returned to Ohio to help care for her parents.

She was working in Kenton when her fellow worker, Julie Jordan, told her of the opening at Hardin Hills.

Jordan had accepted a position of director of admission and social services at the county home and encouraged Huston to join her in the move.

Huston said she did some research into the care offered at Hardin Hills and was impressed.

She applied for the director’s job and was approved by the commissioners in December.

“I love it,” she said of her new environment.

She drives from her home in Marion to the facility daily and looks forward to her time on the job.

“It is such a blessing for me to be here,” said Huston.

“The staff here genuinely cares and wants to make things the best they can possibly be for the residents.”

In her few weeks on the job, Huston has established a bond between herself, the staff and the residents.

Walking through the halls of the facility with her is like going backstage at a concert of a rock star and she greets each stop with a smile.

“I know as an administrator I will be expected to make tough decisions, but I will do it with kindness and hope everyone feels respected,” said Huston.

“The people here should get used to me. I’m not going anywhere. I have been other places and what we have here is wonderful, but we can make it even better.”

By DAN ROBINSON
Times staff writer