Alternate Living Quarters

A week or so ago I had Mom over for dinner. My plan was to let her know I was out looking at housing options. I had already gone to Harbour Village in Milwaukee. My mother-in-law wound up there at the later stages of her Alzheimer's, so I was familiar with that portion of the community.

Our conversation was good, we had dinner with the family, and I started to hint at her lack of social activity and finding some seniors to hang with. That led to "I know where you're going with this, and I don't want any part of it." So I'm shot down before I even got started. I let her know that yes, I had been out looking and in fact found a great alternative to her current living quarters (the condo).

She let her guard down enough to at least let me explain the brochure and look at the floor plans for different apartments. We talked for a good hour about how this was what her doctor suggested, that this was NOT a nursing home, and brought her closer to both me and my sister. I put on the hard sell, trying to convince her this was a better option to what she had. Much to my surprise, she instantly said "Let's do it!"

Wow. I almost started crying and told her it wasn't easy for me either. This was great. I suggested she think it over and let me know her thoughts. I gave her the brochure with lots of reading material and she went home.

Shocked again---she called me the next morning and said she wanted to make the move immediately! I told her that was great and called my sister to let her know of the buy-in. I called the director at Harbour House and arranged to meet her with my mom and sister the next day.