When Chris Hale walked into her interview for an executive assistant position in 2012, she had no idea for whom she was interviewing – the location was kept secret until she was hired. She didn’t know what a continuing care retirement community was and certainly didn’t expect the “apartment complex” she’d seen on Joyce Boulevard would become the center of her life.
Chris relocated to Arkansas from Atlanta, where she’d worked with Walmart vendors. When her company closed its local office and assumed she would return to Atlanta, Chris chose differently. Her son Mark lived in Fayetteville, and many high school classmates from Mena had settled in the area. It just felt like home. Within a month, she landed at Butterfield, hired immediately after a single interview. When the recruiter called just an hour later to offer her the position, Chris was stunned. But Butterfield already saw something in her that she would embody every day: a servant’s heart. “I just immersed myself,” says Chris. “The lines between work-life balance blurred, and Butterfield just kind of became my life.” Over the years, Chris’s role became more than that of an executive assistant. She evolved into what she describes as the “mother” of Butterfield – someone employees came to for help or guidance, someone residents trusted implicitly.
Chris recalls getting a middle-of-the-night emergency alert for Butterfield, the result of an air conditioning unit fire. She raced to the campus, where smoke was filling the halls of one of the apartment wings. A fireman tried to stop her from entering, but Chris insisted. “These are my people. I have to go in there.” Checking the halls, she found one resident on the second floor, unable to walk down the stairs. Her solution? A piggyback ride. With firemen in front and behind her, Chris carried the tiny, frail woman down to safety.
But it was the quieter moments that better defined her time at Butterfield – the hours both on and off the clock she dedicated to helping residents navigate a whole array of challenges. Countless times, she checked in on those who were struggling, whose families lived far away. “I did a lot that no one knew about,” she says. “It just fit in with what I like to do. I like to help people.”
Now, after navigating multiple health challenges this year, Chris has listened to her son’s plea to retire and join them in Destin, Florida. Son Mark, “daughter-inlove” Jamie, a grandson and two granddaughters (one due late October) are excited to settle Chris in an apartment just walking distance away. She beams when describing her plan to help with school runs, assist with the newborn and cook family dinner twice a week. “My grandparents passed away early,” Chris says. “I was always envious when my friends would talk about time with their grandparents. I decided if I ever got to be a grandparent, I wanted to create good memories.” Answering to “Oma” now, she couldn’t be more thrilled.
Despite her excitement, Chris has acutely felt the pangs of leaving. And there’s something she wants people to understand about Butterfield: “It’s a caring, loving community. The staff’s number-one priority has always been the residents.” It’s a philosophy Chris embodied for the 13 years she spent at BTV, an extension of who she is. “Butterfield, without me even knowing it, became my perfect spot. How I’ll miss it.”
“It’s a caring, loving community. The staff’s number-one priority has always been the residents.”
– Chris Hale
