This couple has selected to continue living where they have been as they age in place with each other and enjoy life in the home they have occupied quite comfortably together for years.
Freedom of choice
As adults, we enjoy being able to decide things for ourselves – sometimes with the input, advice, coaching, or nudging of others – but ostensibly still deciding for ourselves. We like to pick out clothes to purchase and then to put them on and wear them for the appropriate occasion. We like purchasing food to our tastes to enjoy at home as well as going to restaurants where we can enjoy our favorite cuisines.
We decide which TV shows and movies to watch, music to listen to, articles to read, games to play, sports or activities to follow, and other activities that we find enjoyable and worthwhile for us.
There are many things in life that we have to do in terms of local ordinances, federal regulations, and other mandates, but we still have choices.
Our forever home
One of the biggest decisions we make as adults is where we are going to live. Once we identify the place – the neighborhood and style of home (at the right price and other variables, of course) – where we want to continue living indefinitely without interruption, we get to seriously age in place.
Aging in place may be a thoughtful, deliberate process that we have contemplated and then put into action, or it may be something that just happens because we like our homes so well and what they provide for us.
However we find our forever home and then decide that this is where we want to remain, aging in place is still a choice that we make. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a declarative one that we announce to friends, relatives, and social media, but the decision has been made nevertheless.
The long-term freedom
Aging in place gives us a long-term perspective in terms of freedoms. We are free to continue living where we are without constantly (or occasionally) thinking about that next home or apartment that we want to look for, locate, and move into to satisfy our perceived needs. Our needs are met where we are so thinking of another dwelling is one task that we can eliminate.
Rather than thinking about what our home might not provide and possibly how that could be accommodated elsewhere, we are able to focus our time, energy, and finances toward making our current long-term home even better for us – to continually accommodate our changing needs so we can continue enjoying life as well.