How are you guys dealing with Assisted Living Omaha your folks getting older and needing
help?
QUESTION: My in-laws are getting old enough that we're looking at elder-care
for them. We've been asking around town what it costs for them to
stay in an assisted-living dealy-bob. It's $5000/month each.
Mom has Old-Timers and Pop is going blind, but is otherwise
healthy.
My idea is to build a cabin on the ranch for a nanny/health care
person to live in, rent free, and get paid to take care of the folks
in their own home. I don't know what the going rate is for elder-
care. Maybe $2000/month? It's worth more, trust me...
We have the land. We can build a nice cabin. The folks would
_love_ to stay in their own home, rather than go to town and
spend $10,000/month for someone to cook 3 meals/day for
them, make sure they take their meds, and drive them to town
a few days a week to visit friends, go shopping, hit the library
and do other town things. (I thought up the ultimate horror today:
dad could get stuck in a live-in home situation with... republicans...
That would just send him into apoplexy.)
How are you guys dealing with your folks getting older and needing
help? I do what I can, but, boy, oh, boy, is it taxing.
ANSWER: Well, Dad was living on his own, in Desert Hot Springs, by Palm Springs. He an
Mom had divorced long ago, but maintained friendship. A retired Electrician, he
got into running a handyman business, keeping two 30-somethings busy, in mobile
home parks and such. Dad was a lifetime smoker and drinker. One day he just
passed out, so they got him in a hospital in Palm Springs. He stayed there a
few weeks. Palm Springs was a long drive, with Mom in Pomona, and my brothers
elswhere around Los Angeles -- I was near Mexico. My younger brother got him
moved to a VENCOR facility in Ontario, which was better care for him, and Mom
could take a bus to visit him, I made weekend trips, and later moved more to
the North. As his insurance was exhausted, we got him moved to a care facility,
next to Mom's mobilehome park, so she could literally walk over to visit him.
About 120-days from his first hospitalization, he passed due to emphazyma. He
was 67. That was back in March of 1999.
Mom, is a pack-a-day smoker, drinks a couple of tall beers a day, is 74, and
still going. We (her son's) have considered assisted living for her, but she
refuses, and wants to live in her 40 foot single-wide, surrounded by her dieing
neighbors. I figure, as long as she can take care of herself, walk to the
grocery store, tobacco shop, liquor store, or bar, and cook her meals, clean
and dress herself, then she can stay in her trailer.
BTW-- We have her on Meals-On-Wheels.
She hates it, and just fills her freezer with them. Her complaint about MOW?
There is no label on the lid to tell her what's inside. She calls them
"Mystery-Meals".
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