Stop by Precious Memories Child Care on 25th and Leavenworth Streets and it’s easy to see why thousands of children and their parents respect and adore a slight 72-year-old affectionately called Grandma Verna.

Verna Kephart has dedicated her life and career around her motto: accept any child, regardless of disability. Her unconditional love reaches out to children, her staff, parents and Creighton students who volunteer there and who learn about the impact of poverty. Though she is slowly handing the business over to Angie Bessey, a 13-year volunteer-turned-employee, her passion and vision continue to have an impact on all who meet her.

Verna has been raising and taking care of children for more than 50 years. Her bustling day care averages 90 children in the summer and 60 during the school year.

“God sends the kids here that need us. Not just the clean and cute ones – all the kids who need someone to love them,” Verna said.

Verna and her staff accept all children, those who suffer from lead poisoning, fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, neglect and abuse.

The day care works with newborns to people as old as 21. They come from a rainbow of backgrounds and neighborhoods throughout Omaha. All are greeted with her reassuring, “Hi honey, how are you doing today?”

Although Verna is the one who has worked tirelessly to help raise these children, Creighton students have shared her vision.

Dr. Barb Harris, Creighton social work professor, got to know Verna through the Mammel Foundation eight years ago and became “enamored.” Harris takes her classes to the day care to learn about challenges that come with poverty. Harris praises the impact Verna has had on the children and the area.

“People come back because they know Verna’s on the corner – it’s sustainability for the neighborhood.”

Verna feels passionately about the care of children and it is apparent as she sits comfortably in a child-sized chair and tag-teams questions with Bessey.

“Don’t let these kids slip through the cracks. God didn’t give up on anyone,” Verna said. She also notes difficult parents can be harder to work with than the children.

Even when people are difficult, Bessey suggests finding the good in that person.

“It doesn’t do any good to build kids up and then send them home to a parent or home that doesn’t reinforce behavior or care. You have to be willing to help the parent,” Bessey said.

Verna believes those born with money, ability and fortitude are compelled to help those who lack any of those qualities.

That attitude perfectly reflects the efforts of Creighton students who go to help. The Freshman Leadership Program sends volunteers to Precious Memories every Tuesday and they do maintenance projects on the weekends. The Student Art League painted the mural on the nursery walls and some medical students offer their time.

Steve Kelly, Arts & Sciences junior and project executive for FLP, has been working with Verna for three years. FLP members have helped Verna do much-needed painting, and they’ve held a Thanksgiving dinner for the past two years with the proceeds going to Precious Memories.

“Every time I talk to her, she can’t stop talking about the children, and she can’t stop smiling. The children are what keep her going,” Kelly said.

Verna appreciates the help. “With the Creighton kids we have now, it’s delightful. It’s wonderful,” she said.

Verna’s motto of compassion in the face of hardship is lived out in her personal life. She was born in an abandoned boxcar during the Depression and endured an abusive relationship for 17 years.

“I didn’t know I had options.”

Verna said she can relate to parents’ struggles because she has been on welfare, too. She raised three children of her own, two stepchildren and foster children and she adopted two siblings with lead poisoning when she was 52.

To make ends meet, she took in laundry and started watching other people’s children when she was 20.

Despite being surrounded by children all the time, Verna never thought she’d open a day care. But after one of her daughters turned 13, she figured out it was about more than just paying the bills.

“I realized I don’t have to do this anymore. I’m doing it because I love it. This is what I’m best at and I couldn’t imagine these poor kids not having someone to love them as much as I love them.”

She ran a smaller day care across the street from her South Omaha house for 15 years. An acquaintance begged her to take over a bar that was struggling financially. That bar became Precious Memories.

“I could barely afford the one. I just knew I couldn’t do it, but God made me look at it,” Verna said.

When she went to check it out, she saw Native American children wading in the gutter. “That’s what made my decision. I knew these kids needed a place to go.” With the unexpected offer of $30,000 over three years by the Mammel Foundation of Omaha, her day care was born.

“I was terrified.”

Starting up was hard, and she made sure she paid the bills and her employees first. “I just paid myself last, and some years there wasn’t any money. Everything we earned went back into the day care.”

She worked 14-hour days and did bookwork on weekends, as well as maintenance and painting. From 1988 to 2000, she made an average of $12,000 a year. The day care, now financially stable, is thriving.

The location allows access to families that need the day care, but the area is plagued by drug and alcohol abuse, gangs and parents trying to get off welfare.

Even with so much need, there’s plenty of room for Verna’s love. She knows or has taken care of many of the children in the area. “It’s a poor community, which makes us even closer.”

Bessey is now taking over Verna’s job. She started volunteering at Precious Memories 13 years ago at age 12. Now, her three boys attend the day care. When she struggles, her inspiration comes from her friend and mentor. “It gives me hope to see what she’s been through. It pushes me. I want to continue what Verna started here.”

Verna doesn’t offer her advice and love only to children, but also to her staff of around 13 who know she’s always available for “front porch” counseling.

“The day care takes care of the workers,” Bessey said. “You can’t add up what Verna gives us. None of us are going to go without if you work for Verna.”

Generosity flows from Verna. Bessey remembers when Verna used her personal money to pay rent and utility bills for a struggling mother and when she fed a homeless man every day.

Now Verna only comes in during the morning and does all the bookwork at home. She is making time to do some reading, quilting, fishing and boating with her husband and raising her two teenagers.

By building up the day care with her constant energy and dedication and a life filled with unconditional love, Verna is teaching others to care for disadvantaged children as much as she does.

“If I never went back in there, the day care would be run just fine. Not a doubt in my mind,” she said.