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OGDEN -- Melba Wahlen felt a twinge as she arrived Nov. 19 to cut the ribbon to the nursing home named after her late husband.
"I felt butterflies when I came in, but he's with me," she said as her children and grandchildren fluttered around, admirers congratulated her and dignitaries lined up to have their pictures taken with her.
Mrs. Wahlen was taking the place of George Wahlen, who was Utah's only living Medal of Honor recipient until he died in June.
George Wahlen, a veteran of three wars, worked for decades for Utah veterans. The last years of his life were spent trying to get Ogden's new veterans nursing home built.
His labor came to fruition Thursday with the formal ribbon-cutting at the George E. Wahlen Ogden Veterans Home, a 120-bed facility at 1102 N. 1200 West.
Construction on the home started last November, with the goal of being done by Veterans Day this year.
Construction is substantially finished, but Utah veterans officials say the home will not receive patients until January. It needs final equipment installed, federal inspections, and the staff needs to be hired.
More than 500 politicians, veterans and visitors heard former Utah Jazz coach and U.S. Army veteran Frank Layden praise the home as "this wonderful monument, and the reason I say this monument is it causes us to never forget those who gave us our wonderful freedoms we enjoy every day."
The people who worked to build it exemplify the words that baseball great Jackie Robinson has on his tombstone, Layden said: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."
Blake Wahlen, George's son, said his dad's final weeks were spent checking up on the progress of the home.
Five days before George died, Blake said, he took his dad to see a B-17 bomber visiting the Ogden airport. After they saw the plane, he said George asked to drive by the home.
"We sat out in the parking lot and he just looked," he said.
When the time to cut the ribbon came, Melba Wahlen joined veterans of World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Layden wielded scissors too, joking that, "I'm here because I was the lookout at Pearl Harbor."
At the signal everyone snipped and the ribbon was sliced into half a dozen pieces.
