Answered Prayers
/When Caroline Long Tindall’s son Liam was born in 2000, it was the culmination of many difficult years of trying to start a family. Holding her newborn son, she imagined her life ahead as a prototypical mother and wife with the challenges, rewards, and unexpected circumstances that accompany parenthood.
Caroline had no way of knowing, however, that she was embarking on a path rife with challenges she could never have imagined - or even more surprising – that she would have the strength and conviction to create an organization that would provide help and hope to both her new son and hundreds of local families facing similar challenges.
Over two decades later, Caroline is the visionary and dynamic CEO of St. Gerard House which has provided services and programs for hundreds of families faced with the challenges of caring for children with special needs.
Early History
Caroline (Front Row - left) with her mother, father, and six siblings (1974)
Caroline was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. The youngest of seven siblings, she imagined that one day she too would have a household full of children. As she got older, she attended Camp Green Cove on the shores of Lake Summit in Tuxedo for eight weeks each summer. Caroline loved the camp experience. So much so that she would spend the next 13 summers at Green Cove – first as a camper and later as a counselor and whitewater instructor. Just a few years later, her love of camp and the mountains would help shape the arc (and location) of her adult life.
For her senior year of high school, Caroline attended boarding school at St. Mary’s in Raleigh and then stayed to complete her first two years of college before transferring to the College of Charleston. After college, Caroline attended graduate school at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and earned a degree in Media Arts focusing on graphic design, video production and editing. Throughout her years as a student, however, her thoughts were never far from the water, forests, and mountains of her summers in western North Carolina.
Move to Flat Rock
After graduate school, Caroline and her now ex-husband Scott considered moving to Asheville. Virginia Spigener and Starr Teel, acquaintances from her days at camp Green Cove, were living in Flat Rock and encouraged the couple to consider the village for their new home. Their advocacy was effective, and in 1994 Caroline and her husband rented the house that is now the Cherry Cottage on Little Rainbow Row. “We’d sit on the front porch and people would honk at us as they drove down Greenville Highway. We loved it!”
Carolyn as Whitewater Counselor at CamP Green Cove. (Center in Purple Shorts) 1988
Once in Flat Rock, Caroline and Scott opened a coffee roasting company called Little River Roasting Co., located in what is now Flat Rock Village Bakery. At the same time, Caroline opened Mountain Media which did graphic design and video production for small businesses and many of the area camps. She operated Mountain Media for about 8 years until her children Liam (2000) and Bridget (2002) were born and the demands of being a business owner and a mother were too much to juggle.
In 1996, the couple also opened a cookie company called Immaculate Baking Company in the garage of their new home located just behind Five Oaks on Greenville Highway. The company proved successful and moved from the garage to a facility on 7th Ave in Hendersonville and later to a 20,000-square-foot building on Brooklyn Ave. The young company’s success attracted the attention of local angel investors and later venture capitalists who funded further expansions. The small cookie company that started in their garage would ultimately be purchased by General Mills in 2011.
A Miracle
Caroline and Scott were married in 1993 and Caroline expected to raise a large family. “I'm Catholic, the youngest of this big Catholic family, and I always wanted a bushel of kids,” explains Caroline. Unfortunately, Caroline had issues with fertility, including endometriosis, that required a trip to Houston for surgery. The operation was a success, but the doctors told Caroline that they were uncertain if she’d ever be able to conceive.
After seven years of marriage with no children, Caroline faced the prospect of never having a family of her own. Her father, a devout Catholic, explained the situation to family relatives in County Kerry during a visit to Ireland. His Irish family quickly offered a solution. They handed Denny Long a blessed medal of St. Gerard - Gerard being the Patron Saint of expectant mothers or troubled pregnancies - and told him to say a novena (a special prayer repeated each day for a specified period of time) on Caroline’s behalf. Believing in the power of prayer and wanting to help his daughter, Long went to mass every day for 21 straight days to pray to St. Gerard on behalf of Caroline.
On the final day of the novena, Mr. Long received a call from Caroline - who had no idea about the blessed medal and her father’s prayers. She told her father, “You’re not going to believe this.” Then she shared the miraculous news that she was expecting her first child. “When I told him over the phone he just started sobbing,” she recalls with a smile.
A few months later, Liam Patrick Gerard Blackwell was born. Then, 18 months later, Caroline welcomed her daughter Bridget. Caroline’s and her father’s prayers had been answered. They didn’t realize at the time, however, that many more prayers would be needed in the years to come.
Caroline’s Search for Treatment
CAroline with Liam and Bridget (2013)
Liam was a big baby, weighing over 9 lbs. at birth. Caroline assumed a big baby would be a healthy baby, but Liam had a series of health issues primarily with his digestive system, and seemed to be lagging behind the norms of pediatric development. As a new mother, Caroline was concerned but had no frame of reference to judge the severity of Liam’s health issues.
Just eight weeks before Liam was born, Caroline’s good friend Jane Dockendorf delivered her daughter Audrey. In conversations with Jane and through spending time with Audrey, Caroline could recognize the differences in Liam’s and Audrey’s development. With her concerns growing, Caroline started pressing her pediatrician for an explanation. The initial answers were dismissive. She was told, “Boys are just different.” Caroline persisted in trying to find answers for Liam’s health and development issues. Still, there were no answers forthcoming, with one doctor asking Caroline, “Why do you want something to be wrong with him?”
By this time, Bridget had been born and she had her own issues. “Bridget never stopped screaming,” Caroline explains. And the response from her doctor was again dismissive. “He looked at me and said maybe it’s just her personality.” Frustrated, Caroline refused to accept that her children were “fine” and that she was simply overreacting. Indeed, Liam was generally pleasant and happy, but Caroline realizes now that he was “textbook autistic.” At that time in the early 2000s, however, it was difficult to get a diagnosis of autism.
Eventually, Caroline found her way to the Children’s Developmental Service Agency where a more comprehensive examination of Liam was undertaken. The diagnosis was PDDNOS – Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Caroline was taken aback. “I said, ‘What? So you’re basically saying that you don't know what it is.’” PDDNOS was an autism diagnosis with a softer landing. Although confusing in many respects, neither diagnosis would qualify Liam for benefits, and she didn’t want the stigma of an autism diagnosis so she let it be.
Six months later, Bridget was diagnosed with autism by the same team at CDSA. Bridget was 2 1/2 and Liam was 4. Caroline Long confronted the daunting prospect of caring for two children with autism.
With her concerns confirmed, Caroline took Liam to a specialist in Baton Rouge who was handling over a thousand cases of autism. Based on her advice, Caroline radically altered her children’s diets and held out hope that she could get them “caught up” from their developmental delays. “I always connected Liam’s gut issues and his autism.”
Still not convinced that prevailing treatments could help, Caroline finally reached her breaking point and decided to take matters into her own hands. If the medical profession couldn’t provide answers and potential treatments, she would find her own.
Caroline began doing her research and attended autism conferences in Boston, Chicago, San Antonio, Washington DC, and Lafayette. Even while she was educating herself, Liam’s and Bridget’s challenges continued. Local childcare centers and pre-schools asked Caroline to remove her children. The children were even kicked out of story time at the public library. At the same time, Caroline’s marriage was dissolving, and she increasingly found herself dealing with Liam and Bridget on her own. “I thought, ‘What am I going do? I can't just sit at home all day with the kids.”
Creating a Program
Rachael with Bridget and Liam
Fortunately, an administrator from the preschool that expelled Liam was sympathetic to Caroline’s plight and called to suggest that she reach out to another mother who had dealt with an autistic daughter. The mother shared her insights and explained to Caroline that she had another daughter, Rachael Cushing Cook, who was so inspired by the challenges faced by her family and autistic sister that she trained to become a certified Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapist.
With Rachael’s help, Caroline put together teams of therapists who would come to the family home and work with Liam and Bridget individually. The teams consisted of 6-7 professionals who would take turns working one-on-one with the children. Collectively, the therapy sessions could last up to 10 hours a day. Caroline saw a difference in her children almost immediately. “That's when I could I see who my kids were for the first time. I could connect with them.”
Although effective, the therapy was very expensive – up to $60,000 a year - and as Caroline’s marriage came to an end, the financial burdens compelled Caroline to sell assets just to keep the treatment program going. Despite the financial hardship, Caroline refused to give up on the program. “It was like a train you get on and can't get off. “
Word of her novel approach and success soon spread through the community. “People just started calling me for advice.” Caroline was happy to share what she had learned during her time advocating for Liam and Bridget. She helped people with dietary interventions and also helped several families get started with ABA therapy. “I was just a person helping people. I didn't have anything formal organized.”
It was around this time that Caroline’s father interceded on her behalf once again. He told Caroline that she should use her experience to help others facing similar challenges. “You’ve got to figure it out. And I’ll help you,” he told her. But Caroline wasn’t sure she was up to the task. “Trying to help Liam and Bridget was already my life 24-7. I wasn’t sure I wanted to make it my work also.”
Founding and Early History of St. Gerard House
St. Gerard House “The Grotto”
Caroline was an active member of Immaculata Catholic Church in Hendersonville, and the parish priest knew of Caroline’s struggles with her children and her marriage. Father Nick Mormando couldn’t offer her financial assistance but did provide space for Caroline’s fledgling program for young children with autism. “Father Nick picked me up off the ground so many different times,” Caroline recalls.
With the encouragement of her parents and the sympathetic spirit of Father Mormando and Immaculata Catholic Church, St. Gerard House formally opened its doors. The year was 2010.
Rachael
In 2010, Rachael Cushing was living and working in Boston. Caroline knew that she needed Rachael’s expertise to make St. Gerard House successful. Rachael initially declined an offer to return to Hendersonville, but Caroline Long is nothing if not persuasive and Rachael agreed to come back. “Rachael and I share the same heart for these kids and the desire to help families who don’t have the means to do it on their own,” explains Caroline. A partnership was born and 14 years later Caroline is the CEO and Rachael the Chief Clinical Officer for St. Gerard House.
St. Gerard started as a preschool with just two children. Within six months they had 5-6 children. Within a year, the number was up to eight. Today, St. Gerard assists over 60 children and young adults with a dedicated and passionate staff of over 60 administrators, program managers, and behavior technicians. The ratio of clients to staff reflects St. Gerard’s ongoing commitment to the one-on-one therapy Caroline arranged for her own children nearly 20 years ago. The program is in such demand that there is a waitlist with over 240 families hoping to get their child into one of St. Gerard’s programs.
The Staff at St. Gerard House (2022)
For the first six years, Caroline ran St. Gerard House with no salary and spent most of her time raising the money to keep the doors open and the lights on for the rapidly growing organization. And it was not always a given that the doors would in fact stay open. It was literally a program that owed its existence to answered prayers. “Nothing about it made financial sense. We probably should have closed our doors three or four different times. I really feel like there's been divine intervention,” says Caroline. When the treasurer of the board told her that St. Gerard’s model wasn’t viable, her response was determined and succinct. “I’m not giving up.” Then she adds with a laugh, “I was blissfully stupid and idealistic.”
In 2011, St. Gerard House and Immaculata teamed up to build a new site on Oakland St. in Hendersonville, called The Grotto, which would house St. Gerard House and preschool classes for Immaculata Catholic School. In 2015, local state representative Chuck McGrady led an effort to enact autism insurance legislation that provided insurance reimbursement for autism therapy programs – a change that allowed St. Gerard to greatly expand their programs and services. St. Gerard’s subsequent rapid growth has necessitated the addition of four more properties on Oakland Street to house the new programs and growing staff.
Fourteen years since St. Gerard House first opened its doors, Caroline is understandably proud of the organization's many achievements. “We wanted to show people that these kids have a lot more potential than people expect of them.” In addition to the intensive one-on-one ABA therapy, St. Gerard House has added group programs to assist older children and young adults. They also provide family support in the form of monthly meetings with presentations for resources and fellowship. For their older clients, they provide prevocational training to assist them with the social and daily living skills necessary for more independent living.
Today
Caroline with Her husband, Frank Tindall, Liam, and Bridget
These days, Liam is in the Feed the Need Program at St. Gerard and lives at home with Caroline and her new husband Frank Tindall whom she married in 2023. Bridget is enrolled in the CarolinaLIFE program at the University of South Carolina for students with developmental disabilities and continues to work towards greater independence and self-reliance. Although there are still many challenges facing her family, Caroline appreciates all that they have accomplished and believes that Liam and Bridget are living their best lives.
Caroline is also appreciative of the outpouring of support she and her staff have received from the local community. “This is an incredibly generous community. This is absolutely the right place for St. Gerard House.”
And, looking back at her life with Liam and Bridget, Caroline says that she wouldn’t have wanted it to be any other way. “I was supposed to have these kids. They had all these issues and I had to figure it out. I always felt that it is what I owe in order to have been able to have my kids.”
She pauses for a moment and concludes, “It’s been a mystery and a challenge and a gift.”
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Read more about St. Gerard House at www.stgerardhouse.org
St. Gerard House will hold its 14th Annual First Words of Hope Luncheon on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at Blue Ridge Community College. The public is invited to learn more about St. Gerard House and the positive impact it has on our community. Read more here.
Watch Logan’s story, Finding Joy and Purpose, here.
