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One Victoria nursing home emits a family vibe. That’s probably because six sets of mothers and daughters care for the residents.

The elderly living in Twin Pines Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at 3301 E. Mockingbird Lane watched their caretakers mature and then witnessed how the daughters followed in their mothers’ footsteps. The atmosphere created by the morale-boosting mothers and daughters keeps employees working for decades and kkeps smiles on the residents’ faces.

Michelle Mendoza, 36, was miserable with her job in retail and left it to work for Twin Pines a year ago. She never thought she’d share an office with her mother, but she’s never been happier at an occupation.

“When you enjoy the people you work with, it makes a big difference,” Mendoza said.

Her mother and activity director Yolanda Monroy shared the importance of getting to know the residents and making them feel at home. But death, which happens often at a nursing home, still bothers Mendoza.

That’s when she turns to her mom, also her boss. She wouldn’t have vented to any other employer.

“We try to pep each other up. It’s not easy to be in this kind of business,” Mendoza said. “Prayer gets us through a lot of days.”

We tend to relate ourselves to these people, Monroy, 54, added.

“If you didn’t have a heart, it wouldn’t bother you,” Monroy, who’s worked at the home 19 years, said.

For mom Candy Anzualda and 31-year-old daughter Leti Benitez, who both work in housekeeping and laundry, the residents become their parents and grandparents. The 48-year-old Anzualda sighed and said her parents aren’t around anymore.

The mom and daughter live and work together, seeing each other nearly 24 hours a day. As they’ve worked 21 years and 11 years at the home, respectively, they point to one another for that success.

“What she knows, she teaches me and what I know, I teach her,” Anzualda said.

“Like mother, like daughter,” Benitez added. “I’m following in her footsteps.”

Krystal Lozano started following in her mom’s footsteps four months ago as a student nurse aide. It took a little time for the 21-year-old to get used to passing her mother in the halls at work. She came to Twin Pines because her mom Lupe Rivera told her about the free nursing classes.

“I’m always introducing, ‘This is my daughter! This is my daughter,” Rivera, a 40-year-old dietary aide said. The residents always reply, “We know! We know.”

Rivera loves boasting about her daughter, and Lozano likes having someone she can go to if she needs help.

“Everybody pretty much knows my mom around here,” Lozano said. “She’s watching me. She has other people watching me.”

They plan to work together as long as possible, calling each other “best friends.”

Working together changed the relationships between mom WilliAnn Buckner, 56, and daughter Carla Buckner, 25. They gossip at lunch, share recipes and vent about the harder days – more like best friends.

Carla Buckner can’t believe a facility would hire six sets of mothers and daughters.

“It’s unheard of really. Most facilities don’t really like relations,” she said. “They haven’t had a problem yet.”

The restorative aide remembers back to the staff teasing her when she was the ward clerk.

“I went, ‘Mama, line one!’” Carla Buckner said, laughing.

“Everyone turned and went, ‘Mama, huh,’” she said. It never happened again.

The mother-daughter pairs gravitate toward each other. They all said these relationships help them look forward to coming to work every day.

“We all just really have a blast and when we have to pull it together, we depend on each other,” Mendoza said, “A lot of times, the residents are happier, too, because they know the mothers have their daughters working with them.”

“We’re like a big family,” Monroy added.

Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.