As you age, it becomes extremely important to fully consider the senior living option that works best for you. While many seniors want to believe staying in their own home is best, they often don’t examine the physical, medical and emotional costs of aging in place.
We sat down with Brandt Ross, a resident at an Arbor Company community, to discuss aging and the need for senior living. Mr. Ross was Managing Partner at Corporate Finance Associates, Inc., serving as a turnaround consultant for troubled companies. After making the transition to senior living with his wife Ginny, he now teaches senior courses encouraging others to make the move before it’s too late. A talented folk singer, Mr. Ross weaves music with his message to lighten a topic that can sometimes be difficult to discuss. Here’s what he told us about his experience and his new vision.
Watch the video or read below.
“May you stay forever young…”
My name is Brandt Ross, and my wife and I transitioned to the Renaissance on Peachtree five years ago--very happily, I might add.
My mission has become to try to encourage seniors and my peers not to wait for something to happen to them before they transition to a senior residence. There are too many complications after something happens. They should do it before something happens.
I teach at senior schools regularly. I do history programs there. I first began teaching a form of this program five years ago after we moved into here and I saw, the program was called Seniors in Denial. I considered calling this class by this title. You don’t know what’s coming at you. And it’s a good thing you don’t. But you have to know that something is coming at you just through the normal parts of our life, and do something before whatever it is comes at you.
“May you have a strong foundation when the wind of changes shift…”
I added music to the program because this is a very, very difficult subject to talk about. And I think as I’ve done this class--I’ve done it about six times for probably about 500 people. I’ve seen them see themselves and try to understand. And they’re gradually beginning to move forward. But it’s a big step. Very hard for them to do.
This past year, my wife had, because of pain in her leg, she had to have two back surgeries followed by a case of double pneumonia where she was hospitalized for seven days. If we had experienced this situation living in a three-story condominium I don’t know what we would have done. Because we were here, we had the support system, friends, but staff people who were caring and interested. We had the ability to get food easily. I was able to take care of her with some help. We never could have made it if we were living in our home.
My vision is really to just reach out to as many people as I can. And the story is so important because every senior--and I understand the senior complexities. We spend our life building, growing, trying to do more things, expanding. We reach a point in our life when we’re going in the opposite direction. That’s a very difficult equation for successful seniors who’ve managed to raise families, to try to deal with is their own downsizing. But it’s absolutely essential that they do it on their timetable and not when someone else is pulling the strings.
“May you stay forever young…”
Mr. Ross was featured in a recent webinar Senior Living Live - Aging in Place is an Illusion. Click below to watch the recording and learn more about the hidden issues of aging in place and how to make a successful transition to senior living.
