Anchorage Pioneer Home Guest Room

15 September 2012
8:51 AM

Sunrise at	7:15 AM
Sunset at	8:15 PM

Duration of day: 12 hours, 59 minutes (6 minutes, 38 seconds shorter than yesterday)

I flew into Anchorage late last night to visit my mom. I am staying in one of the guest rooms at Anchorage Pioneer Home.  Since I am traveling with an iPad instead of my laptop, I will be uploading photos and posting this when I return home.

Guest room at Anchorage Pioneer Home

Every time I go into APH, I inevitably think about what my life holds for me when I get to the point where I don't want to or can't live on my own. I admit, I can't quite see myself there. When I review my family's aging, my mother is the only one that I know that has lived in an assisted living home. In her case, the need is clear. In those others I see in the wing I am staying in, the need is not so clear as to why they made this choice.  So I have been thinking over what a person loses as opposed to what a person gains by moving into one of the state assisted living homes.

A person would lose having that first cup of coffee or tea in the morning, sitting at his or her own table with familiar things around.  If she or he lives in a house, then losing the yard, the neighbors, maybe a garden is part of the sacrifice.  If a lot of work has gone into improving the house and making it special, all of that is left behind along with all that it represents; it is turned over to some one else to do with whatever they want.  A person loses the freedom to do some things as the mood strikes, like when to have meals.  Personal space becomes small, as seen by the photo above, making one choose only the most special of personal belongings.  The toilet and shower are shared.

On the other hand, meals are cooked for that person and the dishes are done by someone else.  Laundry can be handled by the laundry staff instead of family, so it disappears out of a resident's room and then reappears when clean.  There are lots of places to sit, lots of places to meet others for games and TV, lots of activities to participate in.  A person's day can be filled with contact with others, or quietly spent walking in gardens or doing things in individual's rooms.  The staff at Anchorage Pioneer Home are wonderful.  They are so good to me and my mother.

From what I can see from the elevator doors opening, two floors are for those who still live very independently.  That is where the guest rooms are.  Two floors are for those who need more care.  For example, they are served meals closer to their rooms instead of in the main dining room on the top floor.  I expect the staff in the intermediate assisted living care are as good as those who care for my mother.

A resident can come into the Pioneer home and still drive, still walk in the park, still shop on their own, but have meals, some cleaning and other things done for them.  Then as they need more support, they can move to those wings.  Finally, they can move to 24 hour care and even within full time care, there are graduated levels.  My mother's floor is for those who need physical care, but are still participating in life.  On the second floor are those who are fully immobilized, such as those in the last stages of alzheimer care.  So once a person enters the Pioneer Home system, there would never be the need to leave.

Anchorage in the autumn rain. I liked taking the photo through
the raindrops on the window of my guest room.

I took Mom up to the top floor to sit in the atrium for a while and stopped by the guest room to show her where I'd stayed.  I suggested it was a nice room.  She disagreed, even though it is twice the size of her half of the room she shares.  She did not like it, probably because nothing personal was in it.  Or maybe it was the grey wet view from the window because she didn't want to sit and look out across the city from the 5th floor like she usually does.

In some ways moving, to a place like the Pioneer Home could lift a great burden, that of maintaining oneself and one's belongings.  The residents seem content there, but I still have a hard time imagining myself living that way.  I guess I am not close to that yet since I can't see it as real, but I do think about it.  I have to.  At some point a decision will be made as to how I live out my elder days.