The calls start coming into Lutheran Community Services as soon as the holidays are over.  Sometimes they are just concerned but often they are panicked.  Adult children spend a few days with mom or dad and realize the food in mom’s fridge is well past expired or the cupboards don’t have any food or dad drives with a lot less skill than he used to and they begin to have visions a whole lot less sweet than the sugar plums that danced there just weeks ago.

Perhaps it wasn’t the “kids” but rather you.  The holidays are here and the kids are too far away or involved with their own families and that big old house that used to feel so overflowing with love and noise and excitement was frankly too quiet, too big and too lonely.

What many people don’t realize is that there is an almost unlimited number of housing options these days. It’s not as simple as when there were really only three options: continue to live at home, move in with one of the kids or and this final option was dreadful, move into the nursing home.  That last went by several names (rest home, old folks home, etc…) but generally called up images of lonely old people sitting morosely in their wheelchairs in the hallways and hoping for any sort of company―even the kind of company that came to visit someone else.

Senior housing today can be as exciting as living on a cruise ship or as down to earth as a low-cost place filled with other seniors.  Options can involve daily activities, trips and learning opportunities or be as simple as a continental breakfast.  If you want it you can have housekeeping, daily medication reminders and spa-type facilities.  There are some amazing options for Alzheimer’s patients and options for people who are independent now but worry they might need more help later but don’t want to move again.  There are chef-prepared meals and amazing views at both ends of the price spectrum.

Finding senior housing starts with our housing guide.