Ann's Family Story: a Seniorly Testimonial

This family interview took place on November 16, 2021. Quotes from it have been edited for clarity.

Many families are in need of a safe place for their elderly parents to live. But not all searches are just about parents. Take Ann for example. While her story is a bit different from the rest, it is still familiar in nature. Ann needed help finding a safe place for her brother to call home. 

Like most siblings, Ann was worried about her brother’s well-being after he had four strokes. Ann was living in California and her brother in Ohio. Ann needed senior living options and fast. Because of his fourth stroke, Ann’s brother was being dismissed from the care facility he was in and he was supposed to be treated in a rehabilitation center. The rehabilitation center realized rehab was not an option and now he had no place to reside. 

Since Ann’s brother had endured four strokes Ann was not able to provide sufficient care for her brother’s medical needs. Because of this Ann wanted her brother and his wife to move to California so they could be closer for visits and to find local healthcare. There wasn’t any family in Ohio to help or visit her brother so Ann sprung into action and started to call around looking for help with senior living. After receiving no responses back from any of her calls she just about gave up. Only one company took the time to call her back to help and that was Seniorly. 

Ann’s story

“So I looked around and found your number and I called. I called lots of different numbers, but you're the only company that called me back willing to help me. I had a wonderful agent named Carrie who acted like a personal friend,” replied Ann. 

Ann spoke to Carrie, a Seniorly Advisor, about how Seniorly could help her to find out exactly what she was looking for in a senior living community. “Carrie said yes I can help you. Just tell me what you need. I asked her how much I had to pay and she said ‘No, no. We don’t charge for our services.’ At this point, I thought this was too good to be true.”

Seniorly offers our services at no cost to families that are in need of help with finding senior living communities; we’re paid by the communities we help families move into. 

Overcoming obstacles

The major issue that Ann and her family were challenged with was that her brother was in Ohio and she and her husband were in California. The distance between the two would most definitely bring about some obstacles, but when Seniorly’s agent, Carrie, was brought in she made sure that Ann’s brother was taken care of every step of the way. 

Carrie arranged for a medical transport to get Ann’s brother from Ohio to California. “Carrie was helping us all along the way saying step number one, step number two, this is what you do.”

Once Ann’s brother was in California Carrie went right to work with Ann to find the best care facility for him. They looked at several potential homes and did not stop until they found the right one. During the process Carrie told Ann what to look for in the care facilities they were looking at and educated her on all the questions she would need to have answered.  “She laid it all out for me. This is what you look for. These are the questions to ask.  She made sure that I knew that before we went to view the care facilities. So I felt educated before I went in.” 

After finding the best fit for Ann’s brother,  “Carrie said that this one here is the best one. And she was right. They would give him the best care. They were very concerned. And I was so impressed with the home she had found. It was lovely, really nice.”

 “Carrie set everything up for us and we were just amazed at the personal handling of it all. And we kept saying to Carrie, ‘are you sure we don’t pay you anything?’ I was so surprised.”

Feeling at home

After everything had been situated for Ann’s brother, it was time to move him in. “You know what he said when he got there? He said, ‘I feel like I'm at home.’ That's what he said. You know that meant the world to us too. We were all so pleased for him to have a beautiful care facility that looked into a lovely backyard and a nice spacious room. And the people working there were so kind to him and it was just lovely. It was a beautiful home,” said Ann.

Unfortunately not too long after moving into the care facility, hospice was called in as Ann’s brother took a turn for the worse. Carrie had called Ann to check and see if her brother was settled in and if there was anything more she could help them with. Ann broke the news to Carrie that her brother had been put into hospice care and immediately Carrie said, ‘If you're not comfortable, I'll be right there. I'll meet with you. I'll be your advocate.’ She directed the whole meeting when we met with the director of the care facility and with hospice and she took charge of the meeting and said, ‘These are the questions we have. Can you answer this for the family?’ I mean, she was amazing. She was an advocate for us. I feel like she's a girlfriend. I mean, that's the connection we made. Sadly, soon after, Ann’s brother passed. 

Ann and her family were very pleased with the services and outcome of working with Seniorly. “I just felt the company was first-rate. It’s number one. You were the only ones that called back and showed such caring and concern. There are so many of us in this age group and we just really don't know how to handle situations like this, but she knew, and she showed me how to navigate through it. The whole experience went very smoothly.”

“You know, you get very emotional when it's your family member and you want the best for them. And I felt like she did. She found us a facility, two blocks from our house. We could literally walk, I could pick up my grandson from school and walk to the facility. It was on the way home and we could go visit my brother. And it was just like relatives were taking care of my brother with the best care and Carrie had facilitated that. And I'm just so thankful,” explained Ann.