We also had siblings to help with our parents’ homes, Bebe, but we have no kids and our nieces & nephews have busy lives. (Okay, so did we when we cleaned out our parents — and it was severely Not Fun.)

Monetarily we’re doing okay. We paid off the mortgage ten years ago (mutual goal when we got married) and have kept the house in good (but not modern 😉) shape. But converting it to senior living would be hard, plus having live-in help appeals to neither of us, so “aging in place” is not the option I know many prefer.

More importantly, I will be gone inside of ten years, in mind if not in body. “I am experiencing cognitive decline” is the current way to bring up the subject in polite conversation; I want Deb someplace where the memory support unit will take care of me so she doesn’t have to.