Have you noticed on your daily drives around the Portland metro area how much we are being reminded that we are indeed a Graying America? Besides the billboards promoting the latest medications or remedies for our aging bodies are the increasing amount of construction site signs announcing the arrival of another Assisted Living Senior Community. Even in our stressful economic times, construction continues as these new senior facilities enter into our neighborhood districts and change our area skylines. How will these new communities impact us now and in the future? Will our kids one day suggest one of these places as our new home?
Numerous questions arise in my mind as I pass these future senior communities - where are the corporations and investors coming from? How will they be able to fill all those suites? Who will they employ? How will my kids, or my spouse, decide when I need to move out of my comfortable home and into one of these places? How will they choose? What will these places cost us not only financially but as a society? These and other questions drum out the radio news of our economic downturn.
In the coming weeks and months I will be exploring answers to some of my questions and hopefully also yours. As I passed by one of the construction sites this morning I stopped in and picked up a glossy brochure from the adjoining community – a retirement home. As I waited for someone to help with my inquiry and glanced around the lobby filled with seniors waiting to get on an elevator, I wondered how many of them would be “aging in place” across the street. Is that the reason for the growth I wondered.
What are your thoughts and experiences of Assisted Living in our community? How has it impacted you or your friends or family members? I am anxious to hear from you as I explore and ponder the many questions of what may end a part of my future. Is this what happens as I near by 60th birthdday? 
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