Each resident who chooses to live at Alderman Oaks is valued. I often have one-on-one chats with them, and it is so humbling to hear their stories. One particularly new resident let me know that she wanted to talk to me after having lived at Alderman for just 2 weeks.

I’m almost always available to our residents, so I was glad to speak with her. It is not uncommon for a new move-in to explain their decision to come to Alderman based on how our staff interacts with everyone, however, this new resident made it clear that her decision to move in was much more critical than I would have guessed.

This resident went on to say that she had been, to a substantial extent, the main caregiver for her husband. It had gotten to be too much, so she decided to “put her foot down” and move to a retirement center where she had a chance to let others handle daily affairs and give her a rest. She went on to explain about how great a burden she had begun to feel and, that for her own physical and mental health, she just had to have relief. Even thought the decision had been hard on both she and her husband, she realized after just a short time that her decision was the right one, and that her husband now understood and enjoyed his new situation.

She had made the decision just in time.

This clear example makes me think about something we hear regularly. “I don’t think we are quite ready yet.” We are aware of quite a number of situations in which people have waited, then something unexpected happened, forcing them to make a decision quickly, and without much planning. Almost everyone that moves into Alderman Oaks tells us that they should have made the move sooner.

Isn’t it better to make decisions while you’re mentally and physically healthy, while you have energy to handle the changes? Isn’t it better to make a move while both spouses can make the decision together and know that their mate will be well situated and have a support system if something happened to the other spouse?

We encourage to give serious thought to these issues and write us a note about your thoughts or questions. Use the Contact Us page of our website for this purpose.

Have a blessed day.

Rusty Blix Administrator