The holiday season arrived and the traveling began. Adult children hosted their parents, or traveled with the grandchildren to the homes of their parents. We journey great distances to see mom and dad, bothers and sister, or kids and grandchildren. Despite the joy the holiday season brings, travel is not fun. It’s uncomfortable, expensive, and […]
Read More...A Home-Mate Is Not A Caretaker (But Can Make a Difference)
Sharon (not her real name) left her community of twenty-five years to move 1500 miles to a new town, new state, and different culture ( New England vs. Texas) because her daughter insisted on it. Her daughter had her reasons: her mother was developing dementia and since she lived alone there was no way that […]
Read More...Housemates Matching—How it Works for Norma
Norma, now 95, has been living with housemates for ten years. She finds her them through Home Share Now , a matching service based in Barre, Vermont. She knew about home share programs because she had had an aunt in the Burlington Vermont area who had been very content with a housemate she had through […]
Read More...Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You
“Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You” is the magnet on her refrigerator. It is a brave, optimistic attitude. Joy summons it up as she copes with her husband’s illness and their growing infirmities. We first met in the late 1960’s and have stayed friends. Her sturdy Russian husband, Walt, worked well into his […]
Read More...Get Out of My Own Way
Ramey had to learn to get out of her own way. A long-time mediator who likes her solitude, she really wasn’t too sure about having someone around on her property. While not “exactly reclusive,” she wasn’t interested in forced socializing over a cup of coffee every day. She wanted a balance of self-reliance and some […]
Read More...How She Left Silence and Discovered Freedom
“I didn’t like the silence,” said Janet explaining how she ended up choosing a life of shared housing. At the time, she was living alone after the divorce in the house of her twenty-five year marriage. She also retired from stressful, more-than-full-time job as a litigator. Her experience of the silence was such that she […]
Read More...Sweet Surprise in Discovering Shared Housing
“It’s a sweet surprise to me,” says Janet about living with Kathleen as home-mates. How It Happened Kathleen and Janet were already friends. They met when Janet was Kathleen’s Episcopal priest, and Kathleen served on the vestry (a church board). Their friendship included vacationing together – Kathleen with her husband and son. After Janet had […]
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