My Journey to Otterbein: Marcia V.

Posted on: March 12, 2020

At Otterbein, every resident’s journey to our independent living communities is different. In the My Journey to Otterbein series, you’ll hear from residents on what brought them to our communities. 

Today’s featured resident is Marcia V., who moved into Otterbein Lebanon with her husband after receiving a postcard that changed it all. Watch the video below or read the transcript for the full story.

A Surprise Postcard

We had not planned on moving. In fact, we loved our home and had been to a program by a different organization that took care of you in your home. We sort of thought, well, they’ll carry us out of our home at the end.

 And we got a postcard from Otterbein about a Christmas lunch. I used to drive by this place for work, so we thought, we’ll just go look at it and have lunch, without any idea that we’d actually do anything about it - it was a free lunch.

So by the time we finished lunch and the program and the tour, we got in the car and said, we’re going to do this. This is the place we belong for the rest of our lives. 

We came here on December 15; put the house on the market the day after Christmas, and it sold the same day we put it on the market. And so within two months, we came here for the first time and moved in. 

It was just meant to be. Once we saw the place - it’s beautiful, it’s out in the country, we love the country drive. It was something we never thought we’d even think about finding, and suddenly here it was. 

When we told our son we were going to do it - because we’d never talked about it - he said, oh, but you’re too young. And then there was a beat, and he said, oh, thank goodness you’re doing it.

We can stay right where are kids are, right where we know the community of Dayton, and to this day we can’t tell you exactly what it was; it was just right. We suddenly knew this was what we needed to do for the next step in our lives.

Learn more about independent living options at Otterbein Lebanon >>

Peace of Mind at Otterbein

My husband has Alzheimer’s. We still are very able to have a life here. We have good friends; we do far more than we would have done because of his situation. It would have been all the way up to me to come up with how to give us a life. 

And here he sings in the choir, he sings in the Threshold choir; we go to the balance class; I go to the yoga class; we have dinner in our dining room. He has friends, and I think we would’ve failed to have all that - I don’t know what our life would’ve been like, with his having Ahzlehiemer’s and me still being very active, and wanting to be, and he too. But he’s obviously limited in what he can do by himself. 

And here there are so many things he can do - and friends he can make. And whether he knows them or not - whether he can remember who they are or not - they’re friends. We’re not alone here. 

It’s an emotional thought when you have someone who is going to need some kind of special care. And I know that, as the time comes, this is the place that will be able to take care of him and me as we go through the various needs and requirements of the changes in our lives.

It was the right time in our lives. And we wouldn’t have known it without getting that postcard. 

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