It's been a done deal for about a month.
No doubt, I'll write much more about this in the weeks and months to come.
We have been looking into continuous care communities for about three months. It was a idea I had. (Perhaps I'll tell that story later. It's atypical for me.) When I mentioned it to Evie, she was a bit surprised but embraced the idea and immediately began to do research.
Most of the continuous care communities in this area, at least, are way out of our league financially, or would allow us to live in their smallest unit.
After some searching, we found Fairmount Homes, about a dozens miles from where we're living now and close enough to my current job and in the direction of Evie's job.
They're building new apartments. We applied for one that's about the number of square feet we're currently living in with a reasonable buy in and a fair monthly fee, one we'll be able to afford, even when we're only living off of social security.
They offered us the apartment. We accepted. As things stand now, we move in in November.
In Pennsylvania, at least, continuous care means that we're guaranteed a place in personal care and nursing care when we require those levels of care.
For the moment, though, we'll continue to live the way we do now. I'll continue to be a full-time manager of the Front End at the supermarket and Evie will probably increase her part-time hours on her job.
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My mom and dad lived ten wonderful, carefree years in Independent Living at the place they moved to.
When dad's dementia began to get out of hand, we struggled for about two years, with mom and dad, to get them into personal care. We applied to the home for a place in personal care and worked it out with the home in a reasonable time.
As dad deteriorated, they moved into a higher level of care in personal care and ultimately into nursing care, until he died.
Now, mom's in a nice private room in personal care.
They've been well taken care of through every twist and turn along the way.
My parents are in a community that has a rating by Medicare.gov similar to the community to which we are moving.
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Over the years, I've seen many ugly stories in which older church people, coworkers or friends have had their health suddenly fail and state and Medicare rules and regulations have overtaken their lives.
So far, we've been through cancer and open heart surgery.
We're told, by the people at Fairmount, that we're very young to be moving into the new building, compared to others who will be joining the community.
But, we see it as the best of both worlds.
We plan to continue to live as we do now, but we'll have a security net...when the inevitable happens.
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There's good and bad in what we're doing.
One thing that's on the downside of the ledger...
...yesterday, we took our dog Laddie back to the rescue we got him from.
Pets will not be permitted in the apartment we're taking.
So, he's gone. And, we're moving on.
The pet-owning phase of our lives is over. And, in that way, we're officially geezers .
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