DES MOINES — In the next 40 years, the number of adults age 65 and older will double.
At some point, everyone has to tackle the difficult decision of where to live when its time to downsize.
A recent viral video of a 91-year-old woman dancing away is shining a spotlight on senior living.
Navigating the halls inside Green Hills Retirement Community, Nancy and Jerry Hall are against the clock to make it to coffee by 9 a.m.
The bistro is filled with a group ready to tackle today’s big topic of who in the room happens to be Kansas City Chiefs fans.
“It’s the people you meet here,” Jerry and Nancy Hall said.
The high school sweethearts have been married for nearly 70 years.
One year they’ll never forget is when the time came to make the big decision to downsize.
“Well, I think it was a necessary decision as far as I’m concerned. Nancy didn’t want to come here because we had a nice house and she had a flower garden she loved to work in. And saying goodbye to what we have grown to love is often the hardest part of moving on,” Jerry said.
“She loved her home because she loved to garden and what she says the dirt came up to here where she can utilize our raised garden beds,” Rick Westermann with Life Care Services said.
Westermann said the new gardening setup at their Green Hills community is one example of seniors finding a familiar purpose in their new life.
A recent viral video of miss Julia dancing at a Life Care Services facility in Indianapolis demonstrates how senior living has put a new step in her life.
“Julia came to us using a walker, in and out of some care and needed help and we didn’t just want to help Julia, we wanted to get her doing to the things she used to do but no longer could,” Westermann said.
After seeing what this next phase has to offer, the only regret the Halls share is why it took them so long to make the move.
“Maybe we’re old but we’re pretty darn vibrant. people wait too long before they move into a life care community as we have,” Jerry said.
Due to the demand for senior living, there are waiting lists for many retirement communities.
So senior living professionals said the best advice is to start visiting potential sites and make a selection before its actually time to make the move.
More information on senior living can be found here:
Green Hills – https://www.greenhillsrc.com/
Life Care Services – https://www.lifecareservices-seniorliving.com/
