The Redwoods

 

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Alan O.

Oakland, CA

We, my sister and I, arranged - with my mom's somewhat hesitant agreement - and finally moved my mother into The Redwoods retirement community in Marin; it has turned out to be the best thing, the best place, we could have done or chosen.

My mom and we took a tour a year or two ago after my sister recommended The Redwoods as an option. My dad died three years ago and my mom has been on her own for about two years. We (my sister and I) would visit periodically, and she has good friends among her neighbors at the condo she was living in, in San Leandro.

After completing her last wish, to remodel her kitchen and freshen-up the look of her condo, something my father would not have permitted while he was alive because he didn't trust strangers in the house, my mom had run out of her life's big tasks. Suddenly her health, which has always been good, went down and she was acting lonely and needy.

Just in time an opening at The Redwoods became available, and we jumped on it and moved her there about nine months ago - she loves it!

Earlier, she had put a couple of thousand dollars down as a deposit, and we had waited about two years for this opening - delayed a while because there was an earlier opening but my mom didn't feel ready to move yet.

But last April, she was ready.

The Redwoods is a sprawling campus-like facility of two-story wood buildings that sit on ten acres of land adjacent to a marsh with wonderful views of the bay. Though started by a church group, there is no religious feeling, and many of the residents still protest the Iraq war every Wednesday on the street next to The Redwoods! My mom has hilarious lunch and dinner table-mates, and the activities are dizzy-ing in variety and frequency. Wine socials, plays, movies, visits by school-kids, dancing, yoga, weight-training - my mom does it all at 91!

If you get ill, you move within the facility to a nursing-care section, so as you move on in life, so does The Redwoods. Even before you get to the point that you really need The Redwoods, many retirees rent units like you would an apartment, and are self-sufficient. As you get older, you then can move into a partially-assisted unit like my mom's, which has housekeeping staff and a dining room with homey meals.

Once a year, my sister and I meet, along with my mom, with many of the staff on the administrative and healthcare side, to get an evaluation of how she is doing overall, in terms of health, diet, exercise, activities, socially, etc. It's a comforting feeling knowing they are there for her.

The negatives are few and understandable.My mom misses somewhat, the freedom of driving, but knows she can't handle it any more. I think the most-missed thing about that is being able to go to good Chinese or Mexican restaurants whenever you want; the dining room food gets tiring at times, but this is an understandable and not critical thing. We take her out all the time to interesting restaurants, of which there are many in the area.

Overall, I highly recommend this facility to anyone who has to face the daunting task of how to treat your beloved family as they move on in life.

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