This past weekend my Mom, aunt, and sister blew into town unexpectedly for the weekend. My Mom is a Katrina Survivor and has moved four times since that dreadful storm two years ago. Now she's facing her fifth move. She's currently renting a house two doors down from my sister and the landlords just informed her that they want to sell the house. They think they have a captive buyer, but it's the wrong house for Mom to buy. While I still think she's better off renting, the insecurity of renting a house has her on the market to buy again. That was the excuse whe needed to come for a visit. 
She set up an appointment to look at a retirement community here in Huntsville, and it was a great opportunity for her, aunt Harriet, and my sister Donna to organize an impromptu family reunion. The visit to Redstone Village, "Huntsville's first true lifecare community", was impressive. This is the kind of place you check into, and are driven out in a box. They have three levels of living space - independent apartment living, assisted living, and full-time care living. I've talked to two residents and both really like it. I know my Mom would fit in very well, but I really think she's too young at 72. Besides, their pricing model is a real stretch for her.
After the tour of the Village we invited everyone, including my brother and his family, over to our house for grilled chicken and other goodies. That's when our younger niece, Haley, got really excited because we were all together and exclaimed "I love my family!!", by which she meant that she loves having an extended family with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandmothers and such. Yep, it's great that we could all get together.
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My brother and I have been talking to my Mom about going into such a facility, but every time we bring it up, she cries. We think it would be the best thing for her, but she just hangs on. She's living in an apartment next to her old house, which still sits there as a gutted wreck, although it has a spanking new roof installed by church volunteers. Pre-K/Post-K, two different worlds, you know it?
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