Published: April 08, 2009 02:40 pm      

Granger giving person to residents

LaJuan Granger is the manager for the Optimist Village apartment complex and she is an Unsung Hero.

According to Jane Richard, Granger loves the residents of the assisted living complex and regularly goes out of her way to do things for them just to make sure they are cared for or out of harms way.

“(LaJuan) has been known to help her residents get to doctors appointments or even to go shopping,” Richard said. “She even brought some of the residents with her during hurricane evacuation, at her own expense, because they had no where else to go.”

Granger has worked at Optimist Village for more than 20 years, but is facing her most challenging task now as a large fire in mid-March destroyed a large section of the complex, displacing approximately 48 residents.

Granger not only assists the residents under her supervision, but she also donates her time to other organizations such as the Orange Optimist Club and serves as president of the Board of Directors for the Orange County Action Association, also known as the “Meals on Wheels” program.

Granger has suffered through many family tragedies involving siblings over the course of her life, but those events helped shape her into the person she is and lead her in the life she has chosen.

“I just try to make looking out for the people who live here my responsibility,” Granger said. “Not all of them have family members who care for them or come by to visit them. With these people God has given me a family, and I didn’t even realize it.”

When she isn’t working, Granger, 68, enjoys spending time with her 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She also enjoys arranging activities, such as the class reunion she is helping arrange for the 1958 and 1959 graduates of West Orange High School.

“This isn’t a job to me,” Granger added. “It’s a way of life, and I think it is why God put me on this planet. I just try to do what I can for all of the people who live here, and they appreciate it so much. It’s extremely rewarding to me.”