NATCHEZ — Bob and Alma Ross have spent every Christmas for the past nine years caring for the elderly in their home and making the day special for them.

The Rosses operate O’Neal/Ross Assisted Living in their home on Pecan Way.

Alma worked in the emergency room at Natchez Community Hospital for 19 years. She said after the hospital began laying off employees, she decided to bring her work home.

“I love old people,” she said. “I love taking care of them, they are just like my babies.”

Bob is associate minister at Christian Hope Baptist Church and also ministers in prisons, nursing homes, hospitals and other places.

Bob said he fully supported Alma when she came to him with the idea of opening their home to the elderly.

“I was right by her side to help,” he said.

The Rosses care for four patients in their home and employ four full-time staff members.

Jessie White, a nurse’s assistant, has been working for the Rosses for seven years. She said the holidays are an especially fun time at the home.

“We decorate (the patients’) rooms, sing Christmas songs and hang stockings on their doors,” she said pointing to a door with three small red, white and green stockings stuffed with candy canes.

White said she is very attached to the patients and loves them like family.

“I’ve been here so long, today is just like spending Christmas with my own family,” she said.

The Rosses shared Christmas lunch of turkey, ham, sweet potato pie, gumbo, jelly cakes and more with their godson, Doug Woods, Sunday and prepared for the patients’ gifts to be unwrapped. The Rosses’ 120-pound boxer, Chase, even had a gift under the tree.

The gifts sat neatly arranged under the Christmas tree wrapped in silver garland, multi-colored lights, candy canes, ornaments and Christmas cards.

“We always get the patients gifts,” Alma said. “We usually get them gowns, footies, lotion, stuff we know they need. We like to get them teddy bears, too.”

The Rosses also had a Christmas party for the patients and their families last week.

Alma said her patients make her Christmas and her home special.

“It’s just a joy to see them smile and to have them here,” she said.

Bob said the Lord has provided his family with the blessing of caring for and loving people in their home.

“It truly is serenity when you can care and love for people,” he said. “It’s a Christian home, and there is a lot of love in this home.”