Presence takes reins at Clifton nursing home

For a man who estimates he has attended more than 1,200 funerals in the past 38 years, Brother Damien DeBraekeleer, the former administrator at what now is Presence Merkle-Knipprath Countryside Nursing Home, is still clearly in love with life.

At 75 — and a record of three heart surgeries during the last four years — it would be understandable if he chose to abandon the halls of this facility that he helped open on Oct. 6, 1975. With the institution now in the Presence health care family of 18 nursing and rehabilitation centers, 11 retirement communities and five home care agencies, his life's work now is in experienced hands.

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