Discover Senior Living

Resident Diane Miller at Era Living's Gardens at Town Square retirement community joins Suzanne to talk about her story, why she moved into senior living, what surprised her most about moving in, the encouraging support she got from residents, and important things she was looking for in senior living.

Shirley Hofmeister, a resident of The Lakeshore near Renton, Washington, joins Suzanne to provide a resident's perspective of what a typical day is like at an Era Living retirement community.

Era Living resident Jeanne Luchtel talks about her life with her dog at Aljoya Mercer Island's retirement community.

Michelle Cornelius talks about helping those with dementia adjust socially in their senior living community.

Mallory Mixdorf talks about how Era Living's Resident & Family Supportive Services provide mental health and support services to all of their residents, and their families, as much as is needed.

Brittany Fleshman joins Suzanne to talk about MorningStar Senior Living's guiding principles, doing the right thing, and treating people how they themselves want to be treated.

Suzanne talks with Tracey Harvey and Chef Ray Canos, Culinary Director at Cadence Kent-Meridian in Kent, Washington. Ray runs the dining program and provides an overview of meals at the community. For example, on the day the interview was recorded, breakfast was Eggs Benedict and the soup of the day was bean and bacon. Lunch was chicken quesadillas with homemade guacamole, homemade fresh corn salsa. Dinner was Chinese themed: grilled chicken teriyaki with jasmine rice, beef and broccoli with noodles, steamed bok choy and sauteed cabbage, with homemade lemon blueberry cake for dessert.

Suzanne joins assistant director of life enrichment Jeanice Harrington at MorningStar of Happy Valley, a senior living community outside of Portland, Oregon. One of Jeanice's favorite activities is leading an in-house Bible study hour with the community, an inclusive program for people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Suzanne joins Community Relations Director Keith Roberts for the grand opening weekend at Vineyard Park of Covington in Covington, WA. Assisted living is a whole new ball game these days because you have so many amenities: you get the theater, you get the activities, you get the best of everything. Being able to come into a community, know you're going to be cared for, have activities, be able to socialize with folks who are on the same journey as you, make new friends, establish new close bonds, and have a good experience and live with dignity for the rest of your life.

Suzanne joins Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living to learn about the 20 rights included in the Bill of Rights for Senior Residents. One reason people are hesitant to move into assisted living is a fear of losing autonomy — they believe someone's going to tell them when to get up, when to go to bed, when to eat dinner — and who wants to live like that? Every community with senior living type of license has a resident Bill of Rights. In this segment, Suzanne and Kelley discuss the first five rights.