Families celebrate Thanksgiving in unique and special ways. From early-morning hunting and pie-baking to good old-fashioned turkey-trimming and football-watching, these acts become the traditions we honor, mostly the same way, year after year in late November.

Invariably, the holiday also includes spending time with members of our extended families. Our homes are filled with children, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and a few in-laws, too.

As we gather our families together again, let us be reminded of our friends and neighbors living in nursing homes and assisted living residences who may be unable to share in their family traditions due to illness, distance or other life circumstance. Our long-term care facilities are doing the same things you and I are to prepare for the holiday – planning the menu, decorating the dining room, cleaning and cooking. Many are arranging for transportation, maybe even some entertainment, but above all they are creating the opportunity for residents to participate in old traditions and create a few new ones, too.

I am heartened by the knowledge that long-term care residents will enjoy a warm meal and share the day with people they now consider family, many of whom sacrifice time away from their own families to create new memories.

This year, as you consider all for which you are thankful, I hope you’ll include your local nursing home or assisted living facility in your blessings.

You will join thousands of Maine families that already do.

Nadine L. Grosso, director of communications

Maine Health Care Association, Augusta