Teresa attended the Lothian Fashion School in Minneapolis and received a diploma in Fashion Merchandising.  Then she was off to Carmel, California, where she worked for about a year at Peck and Peck, a clothing store that you don't find at the Mall of America.
Back home in Minnesota Teresa worked in finance and then human re-sources for Control Data, while attending Normandale College in Bloomington and then Metro State College in St. Paul. 
Tom worked for Electro Systems in Edina, a company involved in metal fab-rication.  "We made hospital equipment," explained Tom.  "We wired and pre-plumbed units and installed them.  We actually wired the units into walls and then installed the walls in hospitals.  I did that until 1984."
In 1984 Tom's world, and also Teresa's world, changed forever.  Tom was in a tragic diving accident and suf-fered spinal injury.  He was in the hospital for six months, first at Hennepin County Regional Medical Center in Minneapolis and then at the Metropolitan Medical Center for rehab.  Surgery occurred at the University of Minnesota Hospital.
Tom explained that vertebra #6 in his neck was badly and irreversibly damaged.  "Number Six is where the brain talks to the hands," he said.  "That's why my hands and fingers don't work.  If it would have occurred at Number Seven instead of Number Six, I would probably still have the use of my hands.  At Number Five you lose your tricep power and your wrists.  I've got my triceps and my wrists and that keeps me independent.  I can transfer myself in and out of the car, for example.  I feel sorry for the people who break Number Five."
Part of Tom's surgery included taking bone from one of his hips to stabilize vertebra #6.  However, there was some sort of mishap by the staff and the bone "popped out."  Another surgery meant taking bone from Tom's other hip.  It was quite a big - and painful - ordeal.
With months of therapy and practice, Tom learned to hold a pencil and move levers and punch buttons.  He learned how to operate a wheelchair.  He learned how to operate a car with a reconfigured and relocated accelerator and brake.
"The accident put everything on hold," said Teresa.  "Tom was in rehab until February of 1985.  I kept working and spent many overnights at the hospital.  It was a horrible nightmare."
Eventually the young couple made progress on plans for their future.  They were married on December 9^th, 1989, at the St. Boniface Catholic Church in St. Bonifacius, the village just up three miles from Victoria.
And then they settled into Grandma Gregory's home on Stieger Lake Lane, purchasing it from her in 1988.  Oleda had by then moved into a nursing home in Jordan.  Grandpa Frank had died in 1975.  With the assistance of friends and family, Tom and Teresa outfitted the rather small house to be accessible for Tom's wheelchair. 
Teresa graduated from Metropolitan State College in 1990 with a major in Human Resources and worked for Mid Continent Media in Bloomington.  In 1991 she and Tom managed the Sears catalog store in Waconia until Sears went national in 1993.
Then Tom worked as a day trader.  "We worked out of Minneapolis, about a dozen of us guys, and had direct lines to New York," he said.  "We traded over the counter.  We bought and sold.  It was a computer generated kind of thing.  We had a lot of fun ."
Teresa soon became a stay-at-home mom.  Son Timothy was born in 1990.  Daughter Taylor was born in 1992.  Daughter Tannis was born in 1996.
It was in 1995 that Tom and Teresa turned their home into the Victoria Care Center.  "We didn't know we'd be in it this long," said Tom.  "We just threw a name at it and it's still here."
The family moved downstairs and made room for two residents on the main level of the small home.  "I had a couple ladies come in to help me four hours every day so I could do the grocery shopping and other things," said Teresa.  "We got licensed through Carver County and the State of Minnesota.  We went through training classes to get the Adult Foster Care License."
What is Adult Foster Care and how is it different from Assisted Living Care?  "There really is no difference," said Teresa.  "But we cannot be called Assisted Living or advertise it as Assisted Living because we live here too.  It's just the way they've defined things."
Stated Tom, "We were the third licensed Adult Foster Care in Carver County.  There are many more licensed today."
The Victoria Care Center has grown and expanded over these past ten years to the point where it now accommodates nine residents.  Construction on the first addition was completed in 1996.  Last year another expansion project was finished.
Today there is a large dining hall with wide views onto their private yard where squirrels play and birds flutter at the feed-ers.  Warm colors, a fireplace, and décor-ative lighting help residents feel to home.
Today there is a great room with a large screen television, comfortable couches and lounge chairs, a sitting corner for reading and visiting by the old fashioned stove, a piano for entertaining. 
"One of our residents has a poor memory but she remembers how to play the piano," said Teresa.  "It's pretty amazing.  Our children play the piano too.  And they play video games in front of the big screen TV.  Residents are always watching our kids doing something."
Today there is also a large, modern, and well-equipped kitchen with much counter space and newest appliances.  It is spacious and inviting like a family kitchen because it is the family kitchen.
There are many other spaces and places for residents to congregate or sit alone and play solitaire. 
Each of the nine residents has a private bedroom and there are several bathrooms on each floor at the Victoria Care Center.  Some of the resident bed-rooms are on the first level, some on the main level.  The Gregory family has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen on the third level, but son Timothy has his room on the main level.
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