My sister and I did a tour at Benchmark Senior Living at Billerica Crossings for my cousin. The woman there spent a lot of time telling us what it entailed. We also saw the people eating. We went around 4:00 or 4:30 and met with her first. She went over the policies and everything, and then we walked around and saw some of the people there. There was a game going on, and we saw some of them during dinnertime too. The staff have all been very nice. We toured the memory care because the state doesn't want my cousin in assisted living. They want him in memory care because he wanders out at night. If it was assisted living, I think it would have been a lot easier but he's been wandering for a while, and the last couple of issues were at night so he got confused. That is why they want him in memory care. The facility seemed immaculate, well-maintained, and the staff was friendly enough when we were doing the tour.

I went to Benchmark Senior Living at Billerica Crossings. It was a little more inexpensive, but the rooms were a little small, like only one window, and the bathrooms weren't that big. They had some things going on, but they were using crayons, coloring books to color, and it was a much older building. I talked to one lady, I went ahead and met her, she wasn't there, and she wasn't working there anymore, so I talked to one of the head bosses; he gave me a tour of the place. Another lady was calling me, she took over her position. I guess they go through a lot of people, which is something I don't want. They were watching a video of a guy singing. Their outside area was alright, you could go out there and sit down, and walk around their path area, but that was it.

I visited the memory care unit of Benchmark Senior Living at Billerica Crossings because my mother needed memory care. It was clean and the people there seemed very nice. They were trying to engage some of the residents there in an activity, but probably due to their own personal capacities, not all of them were able to engage. It was a clean facility, but it seemed a little cramped, or small if you will, in some areas. Their shared rooms, like if they were to have a roommate in a double occupancy room, was a little awkward type of setup. In one room I visited, and it was a very nice room, but you had to walk through someone else's sleeping area to get to the door to the hallway and that I did not like. That was in only one room, and that was the one available at the time that I was looking. The activity that I witnessed was like a sing-along. With Covid being as rampant as it was, there weren't too many activities they can actually do together as a group. That's what Benchmark normally tries to focus on; people have to keep their distance. There's not a whole lot they can do. At Benchmark, if memory serves me, there was almost like a small kitchenette with a refrigerator and a sink, which I thought was really cool. That was well received by me. Unfortunately, my mother does not have one in her room because they were afraid of glass and hot items, which I did not think was a concern at the time that I was looking. But in hindsight, it's a wonderful concern because what if they dropped something and not remember. What if my mother forgets to shut the water and cause a flood downstairs to her neighbor and the next building? That will cause anxiety, money, and aggravation in all parties. The staff that helped me out was very fun and polite, and they even sent cookies home for my granddaughters.

Benchmark Senior Living at Billerica Crossings has very caring people. They went out of their way to help me out, and reached out to me to see how I was doing. They continued until the end to try to see if they could handle my husband, but in the end it was impossible. They have a memory clinic there, and I was impressed with everything I saw there.