The cabinet is piled high with boxes: Monopoly, Jenga, Yahtzee, dominoes and dozens of puzzles.

But it was a simple box of slightly dog-chewed playing cards that brought the four women together in the game room of Millennium House of Southwest Florida on Friday afternoon.

The four women are all clients of the Millennium House, an Adult Day Services and Caregiver Spa Services center off Bonita Beach Road.

It's a place where adults with at least one mental or physical disability can go to spend the day, from 8 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, to give their caregivers a breather.

Some come for the minimum of four hours, some come all day.

"This beats being home alone," said Rose Radezwicz, 87, of Bonita Springs, who lives with her daughter and spends about every day at the house. "I think it's great for the old folks. For the old ladies, almost as nice as home."

Radezwicz's gin rummy pal, Stella Eloff, 87, of Bonita Springs agrees.

"At first I was like, am I ready for this?" she said with a laugh as she set down a six, seven, eight straight on the table.

Now she enjoys her days at the house.

"You have to get out of the house, otherwise you get depressed," said Eloff, who lives with her daughter and spends 2 1/2 days a week at the house. "It's nice to be with people." Being with other people in a safe environment is exactly what Cindi Ryerson was going for when she opened Millennium House last August.

Ryerson, a registered nurse, was working for a large home health care agency, but wasn't using her skills and talents, wasn't using her heart.

"I wanted to work with geriatrics," she said, a smile on her face as she watched Friday's clients sit in a circle in the great room of the 3,500-square-foot Millennium House doing their daily exercises to stay limber and healthy. "Once you get into a large corporation, you lose sight of patient care. I wanted to do something to help people."

So she left her job, did research and landed in Bonita Springs. Now she has a roster of 20 clients between the ages of 24 and 90, although she can take anyone over the age of 18. The cost is $8 an hour with a four-hour minimum, or $60 for a full day. There are additional charges for extra services such as showers, manicures or massages, all of which are available upon request. Those options can take a large burden off the caregiver.

Wilson Touhsaent, 85, has dementia and is confined to a wheelchair. He is too heavy for his wife, Evelyn, of North Naples, to lift. So three times a week, he gets his shower at Millennium House, where he spends part of each day.

"He needs around-the-clock care and I have been the only caregiver and I need a break," Evelyn Touhsaent said. "He's really coming out of himself rather than being home by himself. I see a big difference in him. I see a big difference in me in patience. That tension isn't there anymore."

Wilson Touhsaent enjoys his time at the house, particularly being around other people all day. He was, after all, a Lutheran bishop and is used to interaction with lots of people.

"It's a nice place. I have a lot of friends here and I admire the way they take care of the people who come," said Wilson Touhsaent, as he ate peanut butter cake during a snack break. "There are people around and I know many of them and they are constantly changing."

Ross Ward's wife, Sarah, 73, of North Naples, is in a position similar to Wilson Touhsaent. Like Touhsaent, she is in a wheelchair and is suffering from dementia, but unlike the outgoing Touhsaent, she rarely speaks. Mostly, she just turns her head, tracking people with her eyes. Her husband enrolled her Millennium House in July so he could have a break.

"That way I can get the shopping done, the housework done, the bills done and the odds and ends because I can't leave her alone," said Ward, who sometimes grabs lunch and takes it to the park for a little quiet time after he drops off his wife. "It helps because it gives me quiet time and it helps because she socializes. She comes and she enjoys music and she enjoys people."

Although Sarah Ward may not talk much, she knows, she listens and she sees and that's enough, said Lilly Howard, activities coordinator at the Millennium House.

"Everybody can do something and if you let them know you are there and if you just talk to them and touch them and let them know you care, that is an activity," said Howard, who also brings her Yorkshire terrier, Buddy, to work to interact with the clients. "You don't just sit them on the couch and forget about them. They can do that at home."

So each day Ward and everyone else participates in a variety of planned activities from arts and crafts to games and puzzles to exercise to verbal activities to recharge the brain. Howard doesn't care so much what they do, just so everyone is involved and feeling cared for and important.

"When they leave the door I want to see smiles on their faces and I want to see them come back," Howard said. "It's so rewarding just to know I made them happy and to see their faces in the morning."

When they return in the morning, they return to a place that reminds them of home. The place is filled with plushy chairs and sofas. Artwork hangs from the walls and cozy afghans and teddy bears abound. It's a place to not feel so alone.

"I knew I could bring a loving environment and I took pains to make this look like a home and a warm environment instead of a sterile one," Ryerson said.

Yet there are also places to find pockets of privacy. There is a quiet room with recliners draped in rainbow-colored afghans, a fish tank humming against one wall. It's a room where one can read a book quietly or snooze for an afternoon.

For those who want more activity, there is an exercise room with a treadmill and a stationary bike and the arts and crafts room. For those rainy, sit-and-do-nothing afternoons, there's a giant TV with plenty of episodes of the "Honeymooners."

Then there is the game room, where Claire Johnson, 83, who suffers from dementia, was pulled away from her gin rummy game Friday afternoon when her son-in-law came to pick her up after work. She enjoys her days at the house and her family likes knowing she's well cared for.

"We feel very comfortable with the situation so far. They are very warm and caring people," said Bernard M. Smith of Estero, Johnson's son-in-law. "(We brought her here) to provide some opportunity for interaction with peers and to get out a little bit. This seemed to solve the situation."

Although Johnson didn't win at gin rummy, she enjoys her three days a week at Millennium House.

"I always like to play cards and when I came here, everything was pleasant for me, so I stayed," she said.

Now only if she could win a few more hands.