The population of those 65 and over is projected to rise from 40 million this year to 55 million in 2020 – a 36 percent increase.
With the housing market already in trouble, the question becomes just where and how all those seniors will live? According to the Administration on Aging, which is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, only a small percentage of seniors live in institutional settings. That percentage, however, increases dramatically with age.
“The mistake most people make,” says Bill Klein, who makes the Atterdag Village his home “is to wait too long to come. If you wait, you can’t enjoy it nearly as much.” The Atterdag Village offers residents three levels of care to meet their needs.
According to statistics garnered primarily from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the National Center of Health Statistics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average life expectancy of persons reaching 65 is another 18-plus years.
Klein plans to spend those extra years, playing golf, traveling and socializing with friends at the Village over games of cards and shared meals. He likens the Village to a resort, but values the idea of being able to receive nursing attention if his robust health fails.
He notes that he can always move to a more intensive level of care and then back “home” as soon as he recovers.
His home’s front door opens to a small porch just off the Village driveway. He has a private bathroom, a living room with a tiny kitchenette and a good-sized bedroom. He shows it off with a great deal of pride. There is nothing institutional about the look or feel of the apartment. The picture window in his living room looks out over a steep greenbelt to the valley below.
“There were five deer out there this morning when I sat down to call my daughter,” he says. Then his eye catches his wife’s prized possessions on a shelf, and he takes them down. Turning them over in his hands, he speaks of her in a matter-of-fact tone. He shows off his favorite picture of her, and her continued importance to his life is apparent.
According to the Administration on Aging website, in 2008 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) over half of U.S. seniors (54.6 percent) who are not institutionalized lived with their spouse –approximately 11.3 million or 72 percent being older men, and 8.6 million or 41.7 percent older women. At the Village there are only a handful of couples. But staff and residents agree that their community is a good place to be when losing a spouse. “It’s a small population here,” says Klein. “I get to know all the people and all the employees.” He smiles broadly. “They are especially great employees.”
His sentiment is widely echoed by other residents.
Al Hana, who resides in “Recovery,” makes his way to the dining room for his afternoon cup of coffee. He thanks the staff member who brings it to him in German, for no other reason than because he can. He can thank them in at least five different languages. He wears a T-Shirt which reads: ”God put me on the earth to do a certain number of things. Right now, I’m so far behind I’ll never die,” which is fitting because it is about living that he wants to talk.
He has a hard time deciding which of the many activities he enjoys the best, carefully weighing the pros and cons of each. He likes the food. Surprisingly, each resident interviewed agreed that, with infrequent exceptions, the meals are enjoyable. Quality, quantity and companionship are all important factors in the determination.
Julie Driscoll, one of the activities directors, laughs as she tells how she learned the hard way not to organize outings that would make residents miss their favorite item on the menu – liver and onions, for the record. She says they enjoy as many different types of outings as she can come up with.
“They generally like educational things the best: museums, concerts, tours. Tours are big,” she says as she arranges fall leaves into vases for the dining room on Thanksgiving. “Movies, both in and out, lectures – there is one every Monday on all kinds of topics,” she continues until interrupted by comments from a card-playing group nearby.
“It’s a real family here,” she says. Yet it is an unwillingness to leave family and the sense of home that delays many from looking into senior housing like that found at the Village.
“It was a little bit of a strain,” admits Hana of needing residential care while his wife still lives in their home. “She started out coming every other day.” Now, health and vision issues have slowed the visits some, but they still enjoy all their holiday meals together, and many an afternoon of coffee and games of Kings in the Corner.
Longtime local resident Burt De Young hopes never to be cornered into making the move away from the home he shares with his wife and pets. “That’s why I moved out here,” he says. “I like raising my animals.” He has never broached the topic with their seven children and 13 grandchildren, but he trusts them to make a good decision for him if it ever comes to that.
David Clancy, who lives with his retired father, has not discussed the issue with his parents either. “I’ve thought about it from time to time, but it’s so big,” he says. He believes his dad’s broad sense of humor might make broaching the subject seriously difficult for them both.
Hana and his wife, Lucy, did discuss their options before their need arose. With a sideways glance, a smile and shrug of the shoulders, he admits it made the transition only slightly easier when the moment came. But, he says, “If I had to choose again, I’d choose this place again.”
“I don’t know,” he says after a long moment, “of anything that I could change without interfering with the program in place for all the people who are here.”
He grumbles. His sense of family has expanded more than he ever planned.