We looked at the memory care of The Retreat at Fishersville. Everybody was really nice. The rooms were alright and whatnot, and all the elderly patients seemed to be pretty happy with what they had and where they were at. The grounds were OK. When I was talking to the ladies, they said they were getting the garden started. The dining area was excellent. It was like a restaurant. They have a calendar full of activities and they were color coded.

My husband has moved into The Retreat at Fishersville. There are several things why I chose them. One is it's relatively new. It's only been in operation a little more than two years, so the physical plant is very updated and modern. Everything is on one level. It's the first floor, so the view from my husband's window is beautiful, and if he looks out in the distance, he can see the mountains, but it's all grass and trees that he looks at instead of overlooking a parking lot or something like that. Also, they have a secure open courtyard in the memory care unit that the residents may use any time they want. Whereas in other places, to get any fresh air or to be outside, I would have to go with him. This way he can come and go to the courtyard and just enjoy sitting in the fresh air, which he had been missing. That's another reason why I like this. Their activities calendar is quite full. They have lots and lots of activities, and they keep the residents very busy. Among the activities, they go on bus trips. Sometimes they're just driving around to look at the scenery, but sometimes they will take them for ice cream or to a local attraction or something like that, whereas some of the other facilities I looked at might go once a month, so that's a big difference. When I toured through there in the middle of the day, most of the memory care residents were out in the common area. They weren't off by themselves in their rooms. They were out. Some were participating in the activity. Some were sitting and watching. Some were looking at the TV. But I did not see a single one dozing in a chair. They were engaged. Also, during that same period of time, there were five staff members. I've noticed in some other places, one, two, and in one situation, none with eyes on those residents. Now, I'm sure that they were somewhere assisting somebody in their room or taking somebody to the toilet or whatever. But this was five people engaged and watching and supervising about 14 people, so I was very impressed with all of that. I've been there with my husband when he has been having a meal, but the meals were very attractive. He ate the whole thing. And I also liked that the portion sizes was very appropriate. There was a delicious-looking dessert, but it was a small portion, just enough to satisfy. But not like you would go into a restaurant and get something really big to justify the price or something. They were adequate portion size without making people overeat and the meals were very attractively presented on real silverware and real plates. No paper or Styrofoam or plastic. It seemed perfect. I was very pleased on Thursday when we were moving in. My husband and his daughter and I were unpacking his things and making his bed and that sort of thing, and the facilities manager came to introduce herself and explained how we should get in touch with her if anything goes wrong or broken or needs attention. And while she was in there, she noticed a light bulb in the bathroom was out (which I hadn't even noticed), but she saw it and within 15 minutes, she was back with a light bulb. So I believe that she's going to be paying good attention to the facilities. Things looked very clean and attractive, and the materials that the floor was made of are easy to clean and easy to mop things. When you have a carpet, no matter how often you vacuum it, it's never clean, and there's always dust or dirt in the carpet, and I liked that there was no carpet in there. In comparison to the other places in this general area, I would say the value for money is very good.

The Retreat at Fishersville was a very nice facility. The tour was not as well as the one that we got at the other place. I was shown around the areas and stuff like that, but they didn't go into detail what they would do for their people that were staying there. It was like a quick tour, like, "Look around, this is what we got and what's available." The staff actually put me in the memory care because they had nothing available in assisted living. Everything was clean. I asked her if they had someplace where they could go out and walk, and she said that they would just take them out and walk around. They had a little grassed area. Overall, the facility was nice. She showed me a studio suite and a double occupancy where they could put two people in, and they were very nice rooms. It's a new building. They've built it within the last year. I was assuming that it would be nice, which it is. They have a barbershop to get their hair done, and she showed me the dining area, but that was really about it. The staff was very nice, polite, seemed like she cared, and respectful.