Is purchasing a home in a retirement community the right choice for you?

    About 5 percent of American seniors now live in senior living communities. While many choose to spend their retired days in the sun, others like to stay where they call home.
    In 2015, after 42 years of being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, John and Kris Long of Grant sold their three-generation funeral business.
    Two weeks away from purchasing a home in town, they decided instead to purchase a duplex in the Westview Retirement Community. Located on Westview Drive by the Westview Assisted Living facility, the retirement community is made up of six duplex units.
    Each duplex is 1,072 square feet plus a garage and paid for through an equity refund plan. A monthly service fee covers repair and maintenance to the home and appliances, groundskeeping, snow and trash removal, property and liability insurance, management services, emergency response system, social and recreational activities, wellness programs, utilities and real estate taxes.
    Other services such as meals, laundry, transportation and house-cleaning are available for an additional fee.
    Wanting a bit more space for family gatherings with their three grown boys and seven grandchildren, the Longs had the double garage remodeled into a family room. The Perkins County Schools industrial technology class completed the project, in addition to building a new garage.
    John said they are able to fit 14 comfortably for Christmas and Fourth of July gatherings, and they also hosted the Class of 1968 this past summer.
    “We like the features they give us. I would say, you don’t love things, you love people, but we love our living space,” John said.
    He feels confident that any retiree would agree, and if more duplexes were built in the neighborhood, they would fill up quickly.
    “I just never even considered that’s where we would end up.”
    Although mowing is included, he mows his own yard because he finds it therapeutic. The mower is loud enough he can yell at anyone he wants.  
    “We were wed to the funeral home. We lived there. It was a day-in-day-out process,” said John.
    While John still helps current owner Jason Tickle on the day of funerals, he and Kris keep their schedule open to attend the activities of their grandchildren.
    John said their retirement plans don’t include a necessity to travel.
    “We are very content right here in Grant. I like my wife, and she really likes to be close to home and to her kids, so — so do I,” he laughed, noting on cold days such as these he could picture himself in a place like Key West, Florida.
    John said he enjoys going to Rotary and Bible study and being a mentor for TeamMates.
    After suffering from a heart attack a year into retirement and another last year, John is even more content to be right here at home.
    He attends cardiac rehab at Perkins County Health Services in Grant to strengthen his heart and had a defibrillator implanted this month.
    “Every morning I wake up, I say, ‘Thank you, Lord, for returning my soul to this old body one more day.’ There must be something out there I need to get done today.”
    John feels if a lot of people 65-plus really took a look at things, they would realize they don’t need as much space as they think.
    “Sometimes that involves a purging, which is really hard to do. There’s a big difference between what you need and what you want.”
    John said that outside of a few small health issues, their retirement is as good as they could’ve hoped for.
    “I like my life. It’s been a good life. I have been very blessed. Kris is so good to me. We enjoy walking into our house all the time. I walk in and say, ‘I like this place,’ and she says, ‘So do I.’”

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