my little brother is the VP of sales and marketing of Ridge Care Senior Living Communities. the first and most important thing you should know is that the Ridge Care family of facilities are NOT nursing homes, so don’t call them nursing homes – unless you do it just for fun to ruffle my brother’s feathers and watch him start to twitch while he explains that they are NOT nursing homes. my little bro asked me if i’d shoot some photos and videos for ridge care so i drove an SUV chocked-full of equipment back to my motherland of NC and made it happen.

i was really impressed with the whole operation. every facility we shot at was clean and classy. all the staff we interviewed – from the head honcho all the way down the line – felt like they really cared about what they were doing; and all of the residents and residents’ family members we interviewed had nothing but good to say. it was nice to see people who couldn’t or didn’t want to live alone find a dignified place to call home.

one day i was talking to my brother and randomly mentioned that i wanted to interview mallwalkers – just to see what makes them tick. my brother got excited and said, “Well, we can do this! Ridge Care actually sponsors a mall walking group called Hearts and Soles. Do you want me to make some calls and set you up with some people to interview?” when i told him “Heck yes,” he got on the horn and a few minutes later said, “Be at the mall tomorrow at 8am.”

and just like that…