Our Move to a Continuing Care Retirement Community

My husband Claude and I loved our house on Huntington Street. It was the right size for us and convenient to everything we needed, and we were in excellent health with very active lives. So why did we sell that house and move into a continuing care retirement community (CCRC)?

Claude had spent 25 years as a financial advisor, helping others plan their post-retirement lives, and it was time for us to implement our own plan. We wanted to make such a move while still able to take an active part in our new community.

After checking out various local possibilities, we chose Ingleside at Rock Creek, a not-for-profit CCRC in northwest Washington. In many respects, Ingleside is typical of most CCRCs, and we chose it for the same reasons as most residents of any such community.

To begin with, it was in the same area in which we had lived for the previous 34 years. Like other CCRCs, it offered a full range of living options, including independent apartments, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. It was smaller than many other retirement communities, with just 128 independent apartments, so we knew we would recognize most of the other residents after just a short while. We could walk to all the buildings without going outside. Ingleside was close to our previous home, it offered the chance to form new friendships, while retaining our longer-term friends and our church. Pets were welcome, and weekly apartment cleaning was included.

We made a deposit two years before our moving date, which allowed us to visit several times to meet residents, get an idea of the available activities and sample the food. That last activity is very important, since monthly charges include at least one meal a day.

When I spoke with Ingleside at Rock Creek’s Executive Director, the first benefit she pointed out was companionship, especially for single residents. “You don’t have to eat dinner alone,” she told me. She added that meals are healthy and the menus varied. I remember how my mother used to worry about my grandmother, who lived alone in an apartment and often did not feel like making meals for one person.

Residents can participate in numerous activities, including fitness classes, games of bridge or Scrabble, jigsaw puzzles, knitting groups, a chorus, a monthly concert series, regular trips to museums and other cultural institutions, a speakers’ series and twice-weekly movies. The community even arranges for transportation to some activities.

At Ingleside, we may not have known each other in childhood, but we are all of an era and, as a result, we know one another’s life experiences in a deep and meaningful way. Sometimes, companionship grows into romance, or even marriage. Last year, two residents celebrated a gala wedding: The groom was 92, the bride 88.

We take comfort that people are well cared for here. I believe this to be the most important reason to choose a CCRC: residents are safe, and they and their children know it.

Of course CCRCs are only one of many available options for active agers. Many people wish to remain in their own homes and bring in help as their budgets allow. Other people move to an area where they have the support of relatives. The most important thing is to think about these decisions ahead of time, while you can make plans and before you have an urgent need.

So go ahead and talk about it: What would be your choice?

- Martí Villarreal is the president on the Ingleside at Rock Creek Resident Council. Ingleside at Rock Creek is a senior living community located in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the Ingleside family of communities.