Listening 32 – Listen for specific words

My grandmother – my mother’s mother – is 93 years old, but people guess that she’s no older than 70 or 75. Honestly I think one reason she looks so young is because of her positive ; she’s just a really happy and vibrant person. I think some people, once they start getting older, they sort of up on life – but not her, she really enjoys every day and loves having new experiences.

My grandma lives in a senior living where she has her own apartment. She brought all her own furniture so she was able to set it up to look and like home, and the housekeeping cleans her place every day, so she doesn’t have to do any housework.

The center offers all sorts of activities – classes, , movies… there’s also a library on the premises, an room, a game room, and a dining that serves three meals a day. It’s a really top-notch place, and she says she feels like she’s living like a !

But the decision to move there wasn’t easy for her. After my grandfather died, she was in her house which was pretty far from my parents’ – it was an hour and a half away. And my parents were that if she took a spill or had an accident, she wouldn’t be able to get help. She’s in great , but she is getting kinda frail, as expected at her age. Also she was starting to get pretty isolated because she was less and less, and many of her old friends had either out of the area or else passed away.

So my parents were trying to convince her to move to this facility, but she was very to it. I think the reason was not so much that she was emotionally attached to her house – I mean, I’m sure that a part, too – and more that she thought this senior living place would be one where the residents are neglected and have nothing to do.

I could understand why she was under this because this kind of facility is a relatively recent invention; places like this didn’t exist in the past, you know, where the residents are still pretty but there’s care available if they need it. Eventually my grandmother came around after the place, seeing it with her own eyes, and talking with some of the people who live there.

The actual move took a  because she had lived in the same house for over 40 years, and she grew up during the Great Depression, a time when nothing was and nothing was thrown away – so she had just accumulated a ton of stuff and she had to go through it all and choose what she wanted to , what to sell, what to donate, and what to just get rid of.

Once she moved in to this senior apartment, though, she it, and three years later she’s still raving about it. Now, the place is pricey. My grandparents weren’t especially well-off, but they did their money well and they were able to save up enough to take care of in their golden years.