The Most Difficult Change for Some of Us

If you are my age (late 80’s) or even a bit younger, you are becoming aware of the flourishing industry growing all around you: Senior Living Campuses. Sixty-two million Americans are over the age of 65 and those in their 80’s are projected to grow over 36% over the next decade. The average age of a person entering a senior living facility is 85. There are 30,000 assisted living communities in the U.S. offering 1.2 million licensed beds. These facilities employ more than 512,300 professionals and generate an estimated 76 billion in total economic activity and 9.5 billion in tax revenues. You would be correct to say this is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. starting with 78.2 billion dollars in 2016 to 94.2 billion in 2023. Gone are the days when Grandpa or Grandma lived with one of their children as life slowly moved to fulfillment. Today, friends my age are investigating ways to reduce the stress of home and property management while maintaining optimum health and discovering their talents and interests that lie crusted under years of responsibilities. 

Last fall we three sisters living at our home named, Bethany, received a letter requesting a discussion with our community leadership. Several other groups of sisters received the same letter. It is time, our president shared, that we rid ourselves of all privately owned property and discern new places to live in new ways. The reality is that we can no longer afford to maintain such properties with the diminishing number of sisters. This means also a diminishing amount of earned revenue coming into the community. Many of the sisters have retired because of age or infirmity and incoming membership has been stressed for several years and, still, many sisters are living beyond the age expectations of the past. Any sociologist would see this situation as a mirror image of the American population as a whole. In a sense, we are all in this together. 

The meeting went very well with our leadership who were kind enough to say we could remain in the area but we were to look into living arrangements that would foster our mission and provide us with the health care and protection reasonable for our advancing ages. Thus, we have chosen to move to a Senior Living Campus very close to where we are with an arrival date of July 1. The suites available are suited to our mission needs as individuals. We are familiar with many of the residents of this Center as we attend Mass there and where Sister Helen, who is 93, operates a thrift shop for the Center. I will be able to bring Lily to our new home where she will serve as a therapy dog, a mission well-suited for this lover of human beings. In fact, I believe she will be the only one of the four of us who will work at the Center fulltime!! We will be ‘renters’ here until physical needs change to a point requiring full residency. We sisters built this facility as an all-girls high school in 1963 and refigured it into a Senior Living Campus in 1991 following the depletion of enrollment of young women as students.

I look on this move with a mixture of sadness and joy. I spent ten years as a teacher here; Sister Anita had been principal, and Sister Helen was the founding administrator of the Senior Campus. Our roots are deep and emotional with this building and its environment.

However, it is – at the same time – very difficult to say goodbye to our home of over 30 years. Summer will take a different meaning as we leave our large and longtime fruitful garden. Trees that we planted will nod a loving farewell and our vast acreage of front and back yards with birdhouses and chimes that sing in the morning breezes will have to charm the new occupants. I will miss very much the haunting, nightly call of the Barred Owl as I lie in bed and wonder which tree he is calling from. Likewise, I will miss the chatty bark of local coyotes and the friendly chugging of the passing train every 4 hours. We will all miss the celebrations we hosted, the Christmas parties and the Easter dinners, the feast days, anniversaries, and birthdays. I will miss running in the snow-covered hills under a magenta sky with our dog, both of us captivated by the mystery and silence of a winter storm. Many of you reading this can resonate; you have done the same thing: collected your memories to go with you while stepping into a new adventure.

Reflection

There is a spirituality called the ‘theology of place’ which I am becoming more aware of at this time. According to definition, “it is an interdisciplinary field exploring spiritual, moral, and religious significance of specific geographic locations, environments and landscapes.” When we, as individuals, establish ourselves wherever we have to live, we should do it with the consciousness that God is there – with us and in that environment. This is also Incarnational theology. God is in and with and everywhere. Winifred Gallagher is a respected writer-thinker on the subject of place and its influence on the human psyche and thus, behavior. Her book, The Power of Place suggests that the “influence of a place can remake you…and you can remake the place” all with and through God working in you. It seems then, that we can make less attractive places lovely, and attractive places usable. And we can have fun while doing this.

Whether your change in living is imminent or in the future, you can decide to make it a loving change. You can make it Incarnational with God at the center of it all. It will be hard, but it will also be for the better. Pray this week for those people making these changes in their lives. Pray especially for those who cannot move that they may renew their commitment to where they are. 

God bless all of you, especially my Anonymous Angels. May we all find joy in where we live.