What made me choose a RetCom over just staying at the homestead? That is what this post is all about. To fully answer that question I need to give you some background. My wife died five years ago today. She spent her final hospice days in the RetCom apartment where I am now a resident. Here are some of the reasons I made the decision to stay here after her death.

1. I am a DND (deaf/neurodivergent) who depended on her when it came to telephone calls and other similar type things. Who would do that for me now? I decided that the answer to that was RetCom staff. In the early years they more than fulfilled that need. In the later years I have managed to do much of it myself via email and text messages and such.
2. My 2.5 acre homestead of 21 years was becoming more than I could really manage, and the 2400 sq ft 100 year-old house was MUCH more than I needed.
3. After 35 years of marriage I just didn’t think I could manage “life on my own” again as I did in my pre-married years.

All three of these reasons almost dictated that I choose a RetCom as my permanent home. I knew that being neurodiverse there would be challenges for RetCom living, but I believed that the pros outweighed the cons. In the years since then I have visited more than ten RetComs. Some were better fits than where I live now, but not enough to reconcile a move.

Going forward with these RetCom posts I will tell you in advance that I am more than happy I took the path I did. Yes, there have been many challenges, but there have been even more joys as a result of my choice. I will be getting into the details about that during the course of this series.

To close out this post, the pros for staying in my homestead of 21 years just weren’t there. However, the longer I live it seems the longer I will live, so choosing a different RetCom could be on the horizon, but I kinda doubt it right now.