John Wayne McDermett used to manage nursing homes. Now he lives in one.
After serving 12 years as a rural county judge and working a stint as a disc jockey at a country radio station, the Texas native switched careers and started managing nursing homes stretching from West Texas to North Texas. For two decades, he hired, fired, and even mopped the floors when the janitor was out. Now, after a series of strokes forced him into an early retirement, he lives at the Munday Nursing Center, the only nursing home in Munday, a town of 1,300 an hour north of Abilene.
McDermett, 69, says he likes living here. The staff is friendly. The food is decent. He has a desktop computer in his room where he can read the news and communicate with his two daughters via Facebook. McDermett takes pride in the fact that he’s something of a spring chicken at the facility; he’s the youngest male resident here. So even though he uses a wheelchair and has diabetes, blackouts, and seizures, passing his days at Munday Nursing Center hasn’t been too bad. That is, until mid-July, when McDermett was told that he and 20 other residents had tested positive for COVID-19.
