Golden LivingCenter Lakeview van driver always ready with a smile

After nearly a lifetime of driving, Saturday's ride might go down as one of Merle Palmberg's favorite trips.

Sure, it was only a mile or so. But Palmberg has never had a passenger like he did Saturday, when he took 105-year-old Emma Taylor in his 2004 Corvette through the Harvest of Harmony Parade.

Forget the pageant queen.

"Emma's like our queen here," said Carolyn Lilyhorn, who oversees resident services at Golden LivingCenter Lakeview in Grand Island, where Taylor lives. "She's had her outfit set up for a week."

And who better to escort her than Palmberg? Besides being a Corvette enthusiast, he's a part-time van driver at Lakeview, where he's constantly escorting residents back and forth to medical appointments and other events throughout town and across the area.

And he's always doing it with a huge grin on his face and a laugh or a joke at the ready.

The grin is ever-present -- when he's raising or lowering the wheelchair platform, when he's helping residents get buckled in and when he's making conversation with them.

Lilyhorn said she sees that glowing attitude even on days when everyone else seems to be down -- and it makes a difference.

"He has that rapport with the residents," she said. "They want to be with Merle."

For the 66-year-old Palmberg, it's a retirement job that fits perfectly. He retired from Archer Daniels Midland a year and a half ago, and after he had finished his wife's "honey-do" list, he started to get restless.

He saw a want ad for a driver at Golden LivingCenter's Park Place facility in Grand Island and headed there from his home in St. Paul to check it out.

Except, he ended up at Golden LivingCenter Lakeview, on the opposite side of town. Lakeview hadn't advertised, but despite his navigational shortcomings, it hired Palmberg on the spot.

"Yeah, you can depend on me to find places," Palmberg said with a sarcastic laugh.

Palmberg loves just about everything about his job. He loves chatting up residents as he drives them from place to place. He loves working with Golden LivingCenter's staff. He even loves filling in on the long trips, when he's called on to take residents to places such as Omaha or Kearney.

"If they need me, I'm usually available," he said.

Palmberg also is a mentor in St. Paul's TeamMates program, and he helped start the school's athletic booster club.

Of course, that doesn't mean he doesn't still have time for his three kids and seven grandkids. He and his wife, Marge, visit Chicago regularly to see family. And ,of course, they usually take a Corvette.

"It gives me a chance to check the gas mileage," Palmberg said, laughing.

As a salesman, he spent a career driving throughout Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. And even though it took him away from his family, he enjoyed the driving itself.

Palmberg loves the shorter rides, too -- the ones when he can give someone like Taylor the ride of her life.

That's just part of his character, said Marge.

"He is the nicest person I know. He always has been," she said. "I consider myself very lucky.”