"This really can be a model nursing home if everyone works together," Rafferty added with excitement. "We've always had good ideas, and now we have enough time and people."

The enthusiasm of the staff for what they call the "new Neville Manor" is evident in the appearance of the building itself. The walls are painted cheerful greens and yellows, and plants and St. Patrick's Day decorations hang from ceilings, posters and even lampshades. "If families don't bring in stimulating decorations for the patients' rooms." said Rafferty, smiling, "we just make them ourselves."

On the third floor, recreation activites are constantly underway. Only 20 hours of available recreation are required by state regulations, but the staff at Neville Manor keep activities going for 41 hours each week. Patients can spend their time doing arts and crafts or discussing current events, watching films or playing bingo. Friday morning at 10 a.m. is bowling hour, and the assistant recreation director pushes patients in wheelchairs up to the miniature alley to loss the ball.

Activities like bowling "are a lot of fun." said a patient who introduces herself only as 'Helen.' "They give you something to do, and a way to get along," she adds.

In good weather a bus takes 20 residents a day on outings to nature areas, shopping malls, or "dinners out," and in the springtime ambulatory patients will be able to wander on the grounds.

"It's still and like home," says Margaret O'Brien, a telephone operator in Harvard Square for 39 years who moved into Neville Manor in September, "but they've all been very good to me."