Millstone's M&M Manor under new management
Family that previously owned facility will stay in assisted living business
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

M&M Manor, which is an assisted living facility located in the Perrineville section of Millstone, is under new management.

MILLSTONE - The family that has provided comprehensive health care to those in need at M&M Manor for nearly 40 years has passed the torch.

Delphine Moore and her sister, the late Pauline Messer, owned the manor - which is located in the Perrineville section of Millstone Township - for 39 years, but Moore recently decided to sell the business.

Moore and Messer previously worked as nurses at Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, and both lived on the grounds there. After years of service at the hospital, they wanted to own and operate their own health-care facility for people with mental illness. They pursued their vision to create M&M Manor.

Not only did the two run the facility, but Messer was also heavily involved with its construction, as was Moore's son, Keith, who worked at the facility for 20 years with his family.

"I worked at M&M since the age of 12 in various capacities and at various times throughout my growing up and into adulthood," Keith Moore said. "I worked on the construction of the new wing, worked in the kitchen and provided some patient care."

He continued, "For the past several years, I provided management consulting to include the assisting with the development and securing of our comprehensive care license that positioned M&M to receive larger reimbursements for providing more intensive care than our traditional residential health-care services."

Moore said his family's goal with the manor was to help make their patients' transitions from independent living situations to assisted-living and residential care as trauma free as possible.

When asked why the family decided to sell the business, he said, "After the passing of Mrs. Moore's sister and partner Pauline Messer, it became apparent that the business spirit would change and that the sibling no longer had the passion that was required to manage the future of M&M and its residents."

He continued, "I think simply it came down to [a line from] the [Kenny] Rogers song ["The Gambler"] - 'Know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.' "

M&M Manor hopes to have left a tradition of caring for its residents and providing them a life of dignity, self-esteem and contentment, according to Moore. He said the family members of the former owners of M&M Manor now ask the community to extend the facility's legacy to the new management and owners, AVA Care.

M&M Manor has also asked any remaining staff to honor their responsibility of helping people such as patients Willie Young, Sal Cassese, William Altiere and Harry Darwin.

"These residents hold an extra special history of memory with the former owners," Moore said. "My fondest memories are with Willie Young and Sal Cassese, who were helpers to our family in many ways at their young ages in various projects.

"And now they are very senior," he added, "but I bet if you asked them, they hold on to some very fond memories with our family."

M&M Manor has greatly valued the work of its staff for caring for those who are unable to care for themselves, according to Moore.

"The former owners of M&M Manor want its staff to know that their family loves them all, wishes the staff the best, and prays that God provides his everlasting peace and comfort to their lives and their family," he said.

Moore said that some of his fondest memories are from his time at M&M Manor.

"Harry Darwin came from our first boarding-home facility in Asbury Park, the Miami Plaza, when I converted it into a drug rehab called Exodus House," Moore said. "We moved Harry to M&M [in] 1992, and Harry, I believe, will be the last one to turn the lights out as he keeps on ticking and [he] has earned his right to be called the godfather of M&M."

Both Moore and his sister, Karen, are happy that their mother will see some of the fruits of her labor be converted into an income, he said.

"But the entrepreneur in me is now only further motivated to enter into another facility on a grander scale, starting with the development of a modernized health-care complex," he said.

The Moores have another facility in Stoneville, N.C., where Moore and Messer were born.

"So North Carolina, here we come," Moore said. "But before settling down in North Carolina to carry out a lifelong vision for the family, we will make a healthy and long-term pit stop in Prince Georges County, where we will represent our clients in the Prince Georges County Economic Development [Corp.] technology incubator."