DO NOT GROW OLD

DO NOT GROW OLD

By

Fay E.A. Reid

As most of you know, I’m older than dirt – three months from today (12-4) I will be 91. I retired 1/15/2021, my contract had ended, and I just didn’t feel like working anymore. So, I didn’t.  I had been thinking about my next steps for a while. I’d already looked into retirement facilities and decided on Senior Residential Living. Monthly costs ran from as low as $1500/month to $3500. So, within my price range.

What started me on this diatribe today was an article in the New York Times by David Leonhardt, titled The High Cost of Aging. And that set me off.

I toured around 8 facilities in Sacramento County before making my final decision and decided on this place.  All Senior Residential Living places had roughly the same amenities: 24/7 desk service, daily wellness checks, limited transportation to appointments and shopping, exercise classes, at least two meals a day, half hour housekeeping once a week; laundry rooms on every floor, and activities suitable to seniors.  What this place had in addition were feral Mallard ducks in a continual man made stream with several ponds throughout the premises. And a really kind and pleasant manager. Also, we were allowed to have two pets. [I can live without humans, but I can’t live without cats 😊]

So, I retired; sold my home; gave each of my four grandchildren their inheritances; and moved to a relatively small, one bedroom, one bath apartment, with a small kitchen.

This place had been sold to a new corporation December of 2020. My lease was with the new company, but it contained all the amenities listed above.

In December 2021, the Company announced effective immediately they were ending wellness checks. Essentially, all these wellness checks were “are you still alive and kicking?” They were not questioning our health, providing any services, aside from calling our emergency contact if we were dead.  This may sound macabre, but if you are over 70, living alone, you don’t want to die unattended, and have your corpse stinking up the place for any period of time. The smell of rotting protein is disgusting. Okay, this was a setback but I bought a GPS locator that I wear around my neck. It has a button to push with a human being to answer 24/7. Not a big deal.

After that they took away almost all the other amenities; the exercise classes; the nice manager, replaced by a nasty bitch who despises elderly people. Next the housekeeping; the meals; the 24/7 desk; half the activities; the transportation services, were gone.

We have a Residential Council here, that management is trying to get rid of.   I volunteered to be Secretary in August of 2021, and then when our treasurer left the following spring, I agreed to be treasurer.  I started calling various governmental agencies and non-profits, plus some on-line research to see what could be done about the company taking away the amenities my fellow residents depended upon. (I’m pretty much self-contained, do my own cooking and housekeeping) After about four months of calls, emails and research I found some very disheartening information. The only favorable law I read declared a thirty-day notice prior to any pertinent change. But enforcement is a slap on the wrist. We never received a thirty-day notice for any of the deleted amenities.

There are both State and Federal Laws that give limited protection to residents of Assisted Living facilities and Skilled Nursing Facilities, both of which are licensed. But for anyone else? Nothing, Nada, Zilch. If someone steals your money and you, or someone else files a complaint, there is legal help. There is also legal help for physical abuse. Other than that, most of the State laws protect the landlord.

Aside from monetary or physical abuse – nobody gives a damn. For the majority of us, you have two options, be very, very, wealthy; or work as long as you possibly can, then die as soon as you’re able.