A waterfall softly splashes into a koi pond. Red, yellow, and lavender blossoms scent the air. Sitting on a stone bench, amidst dozens of rose bushes, Catherine Dodge, 84, contemplates her home for the past six years: Mary Health of the Sick Convalescent and Nursing Hospital in Newbury Park. "It's like Heaven here."

Set on eight landscaped acres, this 36-year-old hospital for elderly and terminally ill women is owned and operated by The Sisters, Servants of Mary. The 36,650-square foot, non-profit, non-sectarian facility has helped more than 1,000 women since 1964.

While Mary Health of the Sick offers 24-hour skilled nursing care, the Sisters and staff make the environment as homelike as possible.

The Sisters work as LVNs and RNs without remuneration and live in the convent next door, keeping the ratio of nurses to residents high and fees as low as possible. Their presence adds something else more intangible, says Mother Purificacion Ferrero, President of Mary Health. "We are like a security blanket. The residents know we are here to help."

In one typically spacious, bright hallway, an activities board lists daily events, including pet visits, exercise, travel videos, afternoon tea, games, and entertainment. Catherine, who enjoys making holiday crafts, says, "They don't give us time to be bored."

Nearby, photographs and biographies posted on the "birthday board" reveal vivid pasts behind now-frail bodies, providing another way for staff to know their 61 charges, whose average age is 90.

On site are a beauty salon, laundry, professional kitchen, chapel, and two recreation rooms. A $440,000 Weingart Foundation grant is supporting a hospital-wide modernization that includes a new heating and air conditioning system. Residents' rooms are receiving fresh window treatments, lighting, and beds that look like furniture but hide sophisticated electronics.

Mary Health of the Sick serves people of all faiths and relies on private contributions to support its program operations. Future plans call for the opening of an on-site adult day care center for men and women who may need more physical attention than other area facilities can provide.

On this day, the Zanies - a local troupe of entertainers - are in a rec room, singing and pounding tambourines before a packed audience, many in beds and wheelchairs. Catherine is there as well, singing along.