My parents lived on their own hundreds of miles from me. My father passed away. My mom was able to manage on her own for several years, I visited occasionally, maybe 2-4 times a year. Her biggest issue was managing her money, so I tried to simplify things for her, arranged for her bills to be paid automatically, etc. She was ok with taking care of herself, shopping, etc. She had some medical issues and eventually was not able to manage. I moved her up to a senior (independent) living facility 15 minutes from me. She lived on her own, had all meals provided, weekly housekeeping, activities, neighbors, etc. and I would visit probably weekly. Then she had a stroke and needed more help. I moved her to the assisted living side of her facility. She gets to go to the same activities she was going to before, same friends. She currently doesn’t need a lot of help, mostly bathing so she’s safe in the shower and medication management as she was becoming unreliable about taking her pills.
Thankfully my parents saved plenty of $ and there is no issue with paying for her care. I have talked to friends with aging parents and it sounds like if there is no $, medicaid will pay for assisted living if they qualify. Since I haven’t had to do that, I don’t have the details.
It is a whole lot easier to move parents into senior living when they can be part of the decision and are more mobile. As we get older, it gets more difficult for US to arrange all of this.
One more thing, great idea to think about possibly healthcare power of attorney, advanced directive, financial power of attorney if something should happen.
My parents lived on their own hundreds of miles from me. My father passed away. My mom was able to manage on her own for several years, I visited occasionally, maybe 2-4 times a year. Her biggest issue was managing her money, so I tried to simplify things for her, arranged for her bills to be paid automatically, etc. She was ok with taking care of herself, shopping, etc. She had some medical issues and eventually was not able to manage. I moved her up to a senior (independent) living facility 15 minutes from me. She lived on her own, had all meals provided, weekly housekeeping, activities, neighbors, etc. and I would visit probably weekly. Then she had a stroke and needed more help. I moved her to the assisted living side of her facility. She gets to go to the same activities she was going to before, same friends. She currently doesn’t need a lot of help, mostly bathing so she’s safe in the shower and medication management as she was becoming unreliable about taking her pills.
Thankfully my parents saved plenty of $ and there is no issue with paying for her care. I have talked to friends with aging parents and it sounds like if there is no $, medicaid will pay for assisted living if they qualify. Since I haven’t had to do that, I don’t have the details.
It is a whole lot easier to move parents into senior living when they can be part of the decision and are more mobile. As we get older, it gets more difficult for US to arrange all of this.
One more thing, great idea to think about possibly healthcare power of attorney, advanced directive, financial power of attorney if something should happen.