Caroline Conklin, a resident of Era Living's Aljoya Thornton Place in Seattle, Washington, joins Suzanne to provide a resident's perspective on living at an Era Living retirement community.
It's rare to get the inside scoop from people who actually live in senior living communities.
When she and her husband moved in, COVID had just shut down everything. They didn't meet their next door neighbors Marge and Bill for quite a while. Their friendship grew slowly, but as Caroline describes, "we just got along. We had lots of things in common: a sense of humor, and love of music, children. Marge had eye issues, and couldn't see me very well.
"She told me that she had terminal cancer, and as we talked over the months, we didn't do a lot together except eat together and talk. We didn't get out that much. And her disease progressed until she went into hospice. She went into hospice here, in the building, and so I was still able to visit her and we talked a lot. I wished we'd talked more now, but we talked a lot.
Her decline was a big loss. "She got moved to a different facility for the last couple of weeks of her life. He husband came out of her apartment one day, and I asked if I'd be able to see her and he said she passed away last night. That was hard."
Regarding advice for people looking into senior living, Caroline says, "Friendships, that's the thing that is the best part of it for me. I advise to listen more than you talk, and be sure to listen hard and hear what they're actually saying. Not to worry too much about the image you present, about who this is that you're talking to, because there are amazing people here, with wonderful backgrounds, futures, and families. It's wonderful."
Aljoya Thornton Place is located at 450 NE 100th St. in Seattle, WA. http://www.eraliving.com/communities/north-seattle/
Hear more podcasts about Era Living at Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/era-living/
Learn more at Era Living's website: https://www.eraliving.com/
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