Dan: My name is Dan Swanstrom. My wife Kathy and I own Aspen Leaf Assisted Living homes in Limon, Flagler and Stratton. We never came into this expecting to have this many homes, but things happen for a reason and here we are with some of the most amazing residents and some extremely caring and dedicated staff. We love being able to provide a safe, clean and comfortable home for our residents and a meaningful employment opportunity for our staff. We are fortunate to have Stephanie on our team as our home’s Administrator. Stephanie grew up in this town and she and Kathy have worked tirelessly the past three years making Aspen Leaf the best they can make it.
Kathy: I grew up in North Dakota and moved to Denver in 1993. At age of 16, I started working as a Certified Nursing Assistant and fell in love with working in the field of geriatrics. This passion gave me the opportunities to work in various areas in the healthcare field culminating in management areas of assisted living and long-term care. After deciding to slow life down a little a great friend suggested that the Eastern Plains of Colorado would be a great place to do that! Six months after that suggestion Aspen Leaf Assisted Living was born.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your family.
Dan: I grew up in Northern Minnesota. My family owned a bar/restaurant in the country. My family all still lives in Minnesota. My wife and I both have children. My son, Brandon lives in Virginia and Kathy’s daughter lives in Colorado Springs with our new granddaughter, Aubrey.
Kathy: I have an amazing husband Dan who I work with every day and spend all of our time together. I also have an amazing daughter who lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and my grandchild, Aubrey who is 5 months old now! My stepson, Brandon, lives in Yorktown, VA with his beautiful family.
Q: Please tell us about your current, past, or future career. What do you love most about what you do?
Dan: I was fortunate to be able to complete a 26-year career in the Navy as a Cryptologist an Information Warfare Officer. It was this career that gave us the ability to open our homes out here in the Eastern Plains and take care of the elderly and others that need our services out here.
Kathy: I have been a caregiver since I was 16 years old. I love learning and sharing my time with those who have given us all so much.
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
Dan: While not exactly a restaurant, our cooks at Aspen Leaf do an amazing job and I eat there more than anyplace else. When we need to get away, Oscar’s is our go-to place.
Kathy: Any kitchen at Aspen Leaf or if not at work we might run to Oscars for an amazing bite and great service!
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
Dan: This month marks 3 years here in Limon. We have run our homes in Flagler for 12 years and Stratton 7 years.
Kathy: We have been in Limon for 3 years now but in Eastern Colorado for 13 years.
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
George Horgan runs “Vets Helping Vets” and has been an inspirational resource helping our veterans and those that need assistance.
Kathy: That is hard… We have over 40 of the communities most interesting in our Limon Homes. If you need someone to pray for you or laugh with you, we will be happy to share them with you!
Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
Dan: Favorite Movie? I know this is going to sound odd, but I’ve always enjoyed “Grumpy Old Men”. Growing up on a lake in Northern Minnesota I can definitely relate to that movie. Plus, look what we are doing right now. Not to say our folks are “grumpy” but some have a bit of “additional character”. As for TV shows I’ve always enjoyed “Cheers” as it again reminds me of our family tavern atmosphere, we grew up in.
Kathy: I love to watch tv series. I don’t have enough downtime for movies anymore but a good hour of anything streaming at night satisfies my couch time.
Q: What is your favorite candy?
Dan: Not much of a candy person but anything watermelon flavored is pretty hard to pass up.
Kathy: Peppermint candy of any kind.
Q: What advice would you give to people?
Dan: Don’t live your life looking in the rear-view mirror. The past is the past. It’s done. You can’t change it. You DO have an infinite amount of control over your future. Drive your future to where you want to be.
Kathy: Follow your heart. Give yourself time to develop before you give up.
Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
Dan: When Kathy and I first came out to the Eastern Plains we had an opportunity to purchase the Circle Lane home but didn’t because we wanted to focus of rebuilding the Flagler home. Carla of Carla’s Cluster Care bought it and she and Harvey did some great things there. When we bought it from Carla’s in 2020 we decided to renovate the building and invited Carla to see what we were doing in the building. It was important to us that she sees that her vision and legacy are proudly continued in Aspen Leaf.
Kathy: Aspen Leaf Assisted Living
Q: If you could choose anyone that is alive today and not a relative; with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
Dan: I would be honored to have lunch with any elderly person or veteran that needs a “hand up” but doesn’t know where to start. I’m not saying I can help them or solve their problems, but I am an excellent listener.
Kathy: Any of one our amazing residents at Aspen Leaf!
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
Dan: People seem to be “homebodies”. Meaning they often don’t stray far from where they started. I’m amazed when I see a couple of our residents in the dining room reminiscing about something from say 50 or 75 years ago. The fact that they knew each other as kids and grew up and had amazing lives and now can be together and talk about it decades later will never cease to make me smile.
Kathy: The tight knit bond you feel when you are out and about.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
Dan: Who knows how much longer we can work this pace. We did buy a home in the mountains to retire to, but we only go home on the weekends. I think it would be nice to be home on say a Wednesday! Pretty sure in 10 years or less we will be retired again. We aren’t couch potato people so we will likely be hiking trails or volunteering someplace.
Kathy: Maybe living in one of our homes!
Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
Dan: There are few things more satisfying in life than watching someone fight through adversity and through persistence and hard work – achieve personal success.
Kathy: I am an open book. But most don’t know how I ended up out in the Eastern Plains.
Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
Dan: The smell of the forest in the fall when on a hike.
Kathy: My husband or a beach anywhere!
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
Dan: Every resident, every employee in our homes and my wife all together inspire me to be the best I can be.
Kathy: My children and my employees and our residents.
Q: Finally, what 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Dan: Family, friends, peaceful
Kathy: Family, Friends and comfort.
