The Springs at Simpsonville Breaking New Ground, Maintaining Tradition of Honor

On a June afternoon in 1944, Sgt. Rudolph Hardwick loaded his gear and parachuted behind enemy lines in Normandy, France. There, thousands of miles from home and dozens more from safety, Rudy sat less than a quarter through his 100-plus-year life, playing a role in the heroic American effort we remember today as D-Day.

Were you to look Rudy up today, you wouldn’t have to look far; most people find him relaxing in his favorite chair on the terrace of The Springs at Simpsonville, telling stories from his ten decades of life well lived, and enjoying the colorful showing of leaves burnt red and orange as his 101st autumn slowly pushes out the greens and blues that burst from the last of a southern summer sun.

As charged today with a sense of purpose and duty as he was in 1944, it’s no surprise that this place is where Rudy is home today. The Springs is a place where those who served our nation, our communities, our families and our futures are cherished.

And it’s growing. The Springs at Simpsonville just broke ground on an expansion of its assisted living facility, to accommodate the tremendous demand in the community for accommodations in South Carolina’s leading retirement community.

It’s truly a unique place, The Springs at Simpsonville. Nestled in the heart of Simpsonville, SC the residents here are not forgotten heroes bygone eras; they are the vaunted elders of Anytown, USA, the beloved grandmothers of families near and far, and the stately patriarchs of a Norman Rockwell painting.

The leaders of our community can be found at the Springs. Reverend Bill Page calls the Springs home too. Rev. Page led Mauldin First Baptist, one of the largest Baptist Churches in the Golden Strip and he too served our national through his Naval service in WWII. Mrs. Marie Epps, sister of Senator Fritz Hollings lives at the Springs, and she too contributed to the war effort by volunteering during WWII for the Red Cross and USO.

The Springs also look to former mayor and WWII veteran Ralph Hendricks for his leadership on the community’s Advisory Board. Hendricks was the mayor of Simpsonville for many years and is largely credited for the growth the community has experienced. The people of the Springs are not segregated from the community outside, they are woven into its fabric.

The reason South Carolina’s Greatest Generation flock to The Springs is as hometown honest as Simpsonville itself – they are honored there, not serviced.

Ashley Burry, marketing manager for The Springs says that “we know that we’ve got a good thing going because our community embraces us. From that same sense of Simpsonville togetherness, we’re a family within a family. Our residents truly are the grandparents of a whole community. Around here, that is an honorable thing to be.”

To Burry’s credit, honor is the reoccurring theme at The Springs. As the community break ground on a massive Assisted Living expansion – one replete with the kinds of advanced technology and caregiving capabilities that put adult children at ease with the wellbeing of their mom or dad – they do so because, to here them explain it, it’s a duty to provide for the people who made lives possible. It’s critical that we protect the people who laid our foundation.

“We see our groundbreaking as an extension of our commitment to people and to each other,” said Jim DeWitt, executive director of the Springs at Simpsonville.

“Our residents fought in World Wars, or built planes back home, or battled tirelessly for a better future - not for themselves, but for us. What an amazing opportunity as we build our new assisted living extension at the Springs, to pay back, to say thank you. We thank our seniors with not only our words, but with our technological care and engagement innovations, spacious new social activity space and enlarged apartments all designed for ease of use for our residents and the tenured staff who are there for them at every opportunity throughout the caregiving process. It’s important to remember that our community is filled with the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Greatest Generation. These are the hands, the hearts, and the broad shoulders that built our childhood homes and filled them with food, laughter and hope. So as we too build, we do so to honor their impact. Nothing here today would even exist were it not for their lives.”

For more information on the Springs at Simpsonville, the groundbreaking of the expanding assisted living community and activity wing, or for more on any of the noteworthy residents who call the Springs home, please contact The Springs at Simpsonville’s Ashley Burry at (864) 962-8570 or via email at ashleyb@caravita.com.