ing room area. The living room is spacious, featuring

ing room area. The living room is spacious, featuring a brick fireplace on one end and French doors on the other. Long front windows allow the sun to stretch across the room, opening onto a porch that runs the full length of the house.

“We decided what we wanted and we hired an architect,” she said, adding that in addition to inside renovations, a corridor with two additional baths, bedrooms, and a basement area were added to the home.

Trying hard to keep with the Victorian style of the home, the new rooms offer large windows and plenty of floor space.

Railing around the outside porch was added; an additional exit from the Burke’s upstairs home apartment was tacked on and an additional ramp for handicapped residents was a must.

At present, the Burkes care for four residents, sharing duties with Sylvia Steel and their daughter, Teresa Eppard.

‘Teresa helps during the day and when she is not working” at Automotive Industries in Strasburg, said her mother, adding the young woman helps with paper work and errands—“a real go-fer.”

Ms. Steel works daytimes, relieving Mr. and Mrs. Burke from duties at the home to attended to duties at their store.

The Burkes are not newcomers to the county and their general store is much relied-upon by neighbors and travelers alike.

Moving from Front Royal, where they owned a sandwich shop, the family relocated to Sperryville and purchased the store in 1983.

Work in the retail has prepared the couple for whatever requirements the retirement community may bring. And being parents to a large family has prepared the Burkes for caring for several more in the house.

Adding large freezers and additional washing machines were part of the requirements that 12 guests mandate.

Running the home is “a lot of common sense" said Mrs. Burke.

“As far as taking care of people, you just make them feel like family and give them love and care like you