A registered nurse and the resident program director of Brookdale Assisted Living, formerly Sterling House in Faribault, will be on Friday's AM Minnesota program, along with director Amy Williamson.

I've known some residents there and have given a couple of rides to church over the years. You can see by the picture above the home is not unlike a home many of the residents may have lived in before moving there.

We will discuss the intimate single-story setting. No stairs to climb or elevator to ride, and get the details about services offered and the changing landscape of elderly care.

I've been down this path with both my parents. Mom was in assisted living before her final month of life and Dad was in a nursing home for six months.

Dad broke a hip, forcing him into a nursing home, and Mom told us she didn't want to live alone in her house anymore.

I always tell people to discuss this with your parents or grandparents now. It really is a good idea to tour all the facilities in the community in which you want to live and, if possible, let the person who will live there make the decision.

That's what we did with Mom. She visited facilities in the White Bear Lake area where my brother lives and in Faribault.

I remember when visiting Grandma Kosfeld in a Twin Cities nursing home in the early '70s they didn't have all the programming and choices available today. She suffered from "senility." That's what they called it.

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