11-29-23 PTL - Flipbook - Page 8
8 A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, November 29, 2023
RETIREMENT
Retirement living
options abound
Enjoy your golden
years in style
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
T
here comes a time when you take a hard look at your surroundings and
realize you need to change where you live to something easier to manage.
What constitutes “easier?” It could be eliminating stairs, reducing the need
to manage upkeep, it could be access to family and friends, or it could be knowing
you’re safe and will have care no matter what happens.
There are different versions of senior
living. The version with the least amount of
change is aging in place. One of the most
familiar is Continuing Care Retirement
Communities (CCRCs). Depending on the
community, these typically have campuses with, usually, three to four different
levels of care: independent living, assisted
living, skilled nursing care and memory
care. They can vary from 300 people to
well over two thousand. They offer activities, clubs, meals, maintenance free living
spaces and, should you ever require it,
more care. To live in one of these, there
is an up-front fee that may or may not
be returned to your heirs when you die.
You also have monthly fees on top of that
along with various choices for meal plans.
Similar to CCRCs but without the up-
front fee requirement, are independent
retirement communities. Instead, you pay
rent. You still have access to varying
levels of care, your choice of meal plans,
cooking or dining out. You retain your
freedom to access medical care, and
if you need it, you choose the hospital.
Here are some ideas for when it is time to
choose a path.
Pickersgill Retirement Community
Pickersgill began its existence as The
Impartial Female Humane Society, started
in 1802 by a small group of women to
support indigent widows and deserted
wives who, through no fault of their own,
needed help. Fifty years later, in 1851,
under the leadership of their chairwoman,
Mary Young Pickersgill, the person who
sewed the “Star Spangled Banner” that
flew over Baltimore’s harbor during the
War of 1812, the organization built the
Aged Women’s Home to house the beneficiaries of their aid. This was followed
a couple years later with the Aged Men’s
Home.
In the 1950s, when it was time to build
a more modern facility, land in Towson
they had purchased earlier to escape
Baltimore’s oppressively hot summers
was the ideal location. At the same time,
the oldest continuing non-profit changed
its name, honoring the former chairperson.
Tucked away on 16 landscaped acres
off West Joppa Road in Towson, this
retirement community is under the aegis
of the longest continuously operating
women’s non-profit organization chartered in 1802. And today, 221 years later,
it is a nonprofit retirement community with
a strong heritage of benevolent purpose,
still going strong; members are active in
the community and on-site all the time.
Should you choose to live here, you’ll
join “residents with diverse life experienc-
es and rich cultural backgrounds, creating a non-denominational community free
from barriers and open to all that life has
to offer,” according to its website.
As it states on its website, “We are
pledged to the letter and spirit of the
U.S. policy for achievement of nationwide
equal housing opportunity. We encourage and support an atmosphere with no
barriers to obtaining housing because of
race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or intention
to make such preference, limitation or
discrimination.”
There are no up-front costs, and it
offers multiple levels of care without having to pay an entrance fee or sign a
lifetime contract. Apartments range from
studios to two-bedroom residences with
two baths and a den. Pickersgill is also
about to embark on extensive renovations
to upgrade its facilities: fitness center,
dining areas, auditorium, common areas
and lobby.
What does your rent cover at
Pickersgill? “Everything you need,” says
Jim Strom, senior director of marketing