Apartment Hunting

Kris and I spent Thursday and Friday last week to visit a couple of senior living facilities for her Dad. We just can't keep up the pace that we have been with taking care of him. We are lucky that it is summer now and we have been getting help from Bob's brother and sister in law. But once school starts up again and we have cheerleading starting, we are going to be stretched even thinner than we are now.

One place was very nice, but it was more like a nursing home setting. The residents have a one room "apartment" which we thought was very small. But the place likes to promote the fact that the entire building is the residents' home. As such, they encourage the use of the common areas. So if we were to come over and visit Bob we wouldn't go hang out in his room, but we would visit in the large room where the TV and couches etc. are. It was a very big, bright room, which helped give a feeling that wasn't so dreary, but we don't know how Bob would go for that.

The other place we looked at is more like I was expecting. They showed us a small, one bedroom apartment. It had a small kitchen so that he can make himself something to eat, and it is big enough that he can keep a lot of his stuff (bed, dresser, chairs from the family room, etc.). The only drawback is that the facility is pretty big and I would worry that he would get lost. I think that place though would be much better for her dad at this point, so does Kris. And Bob's brother knows people who have moved into this facility, so I think that would be our choice.

The big problem in this however, is how to get Bob to agree to it. He is adamant that he is not going to leave his house. And the problem is that with his memory we cannot reason with him because he will completely forget everything after we convince him. Kris and her uncle spent an hour telling him why he can't really stay in his house and should be in a apartment where he can get the care he needs and we wouldn't have to worry about him. after 45 minutes to an hour they managed to convince him, but an hour later we know that he completely forgot it.

Man it is hard getting old.