St. Benedict's Senior Community in Monticello has apartments for independent living. They also have assisted living and memory care. It's very upscale, and an almost elegant place. The person who gave me the tour was very helpful. I even had a second tour with my daughter. The dining area is fairly small, but it was very clean, and there are not a lot of people. They showed me the store, the salon, the library, post office, and all those things.

St. Benedict is bigger and nice with 65 residents. My mom has a 1-bedroom apartment. She’s got a bedroom, a living room, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. The food is very good, and the staff is really nice and caring. They have religious services, crafts, and outings; they have a bus. There’s music groups that come in, cards, and bingo. She is very happy.

St. Benedict is an older facility; it’s been there for 15 or 20 years, but it was OK. It does have most of the amenities that I’m looking for, but the availability to get into the place was tough. My dad has been in this place before, but he was in the assisted area, and they took pretty good care of him there; that’s why I went up to see this place. The independent is one meal three times a week unless you wanted more; then you have to pay for more. In the independent part, they have their own dining room but the assisted one everyday had three meals a day.

Before my mother needed to go to a nursing home, we visited St. Benedict’s Senior Community because it would have been closer for us. When we first went there to take a tour, they were very helpful and very nice, but it was private pay, so f you don’t have the money, you can’t go there. My mother had very limited income and didn’t have any saved up or any insurance policy, and so we were forced to apply for medical aid and that took forever. It was a very nice place. We didn’t work with any of their staff other than the person who was giving us the tour, and she seemed to be very helpful and gave us a lot of information. It was a very beautiful place, right next to a large Catholic church and very private. They have a nice walkway and a little outside park. It’s very nice, and they’re very safe.

St Benedict’s Senior Community has been around for a little bit longer, so it might be a little bit harder to make new friends there versus at a facility where everybody is brand new. The staff was fine. It was a little more expensive, and the rooms were very clean.

St. Benedict’s had both memory care and assisted living. It was very new and very beautiful. It was very well constructed. You took a walk in and it was very peaceful, and it was just a nice place; I think people would enjoy being there. The staff was very pleasant, but not as many people working compare to the other facility I went to. The rooms were nice. They had a nice dining facility in both assisted and memory care. They have very nice grounds. They also had garden like setting that people could go out and sit in during nice weather. They had a calendar; everyday there was something whether it was bingo or a movie, but I felt like maybe there wasn’t enough staff.