Heritage House has been very responsive to my mother's needs. The facility is very nice, as are the other residents and staff. We appreciate the care that my mom is receiving, but she has been there before for a short period of time for rehabilitation therapy, and had a very good experience too, so there was no hesitation in returning because of that positive experience she had. She is in a one-bedroom apartment, and the floor plan is very nice. It works well for her even though she's visually impaired. I'm not as familiar yet with all the activities because of COVID, and that has changed because of the pandemic. However, they were very responsive in giving all the residents their COVID vaccine. This has enabled them to have very, very few cases of COVID, and for the residents to once again be able to dine together while maintaining social distance, and visitors to be able to come in with the only requirement of being masked, just being careful, and following social distancing practices. This makes the residents not feel so isolated as many communities have and still do. We saw that as a real positive thing for our mother because she is an extremely social person. She loves being in a community, and she has many friends there. The nurses, CNAs, and the dietitian that I've interacted with have all been nice and pleasant, along with the marketing team and the community relations person. They have tried very, very hard to continue with the activities. Although they are very expensive, and it's not available for all of the communities, overall, we've had excellent experience at the Heritage House.

This past weekend one of my friends came to me and asked for my help in getting his Grandmother to move to a retirement facility. I have known his Grandmother for years as he went to college in this area and he is originally from Minnesota, so he stayed with her most of the time. She hates being inactive or isolates, so I was hesistant to go against her wishes, but reluctantly said I would visit a place or two with her(My friend is a pushover when his Grandma says something so he knew he couldn't do it). We went to Heritage House and the first thing I noticed was the "Old folks" smell you get from most homes, was absent. Secondly, the rooms were a little bigger and a little less "boxy". The cafeteria had some people playing cards, but most of the residents were out walking or at the YMCA. Immediatedly, she was interested. Not having a bunch of "Lay-arounds" was appealing to her. When the director finally got through with the tour, we had a laundry list of benefits- active residents, a fitness center(and a walking group that always went to the YMCA a couple of block away), resident parking for vehicles, and the fact that it was in a neighborhood, not isolated in the business district. We scheduled to move her in Monday, as they had a number of openings. As of yesterday, she has joined the YMCA walking group and is looking to donate Grandson's old foosball table to the facility. She couldn't be happier from what I've seen, granted, it's early, but a retirement facility is more about the person's happiness than anything else.