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Dear Friends (and others), I've read all the posters on moving and find each one rather unique as well they should because different people have different values and different make ups, but PD unites us like nothing else can. Of course, I have other 'families' such as my co-religionists and Holocaust co-survivors, but PD unites us in a total ecumenical universe. Thus, PD has become has become my primary concern, i.e. spending hours reading over 175 e-mails daily, attending all kinds of PD groups, etc. In line with spending my time here with you, I had less time to care for the house, painting, repairing leaky faucets, frayed wires, mowing and weeding and pruning and spraying. With Barbara afflicted with worsening symptoms and longer freezing periods, cooking and house chores became very difficult, and paying others to do, sometimes badly, what we initially contracted ourselves to do over thirty five years, became a taxing burden. I was also getting more worried about our safety in a middle class neighborhood that was attractive to thieves and robbers. One of our support group members, Dr. Mitch Mills, who wrote an excellent poster on what to do when a PWP must face hospitalization, has repeatedly stated that as people age they wait too long to make important decisions, like durable wills, and moving. We decided early enough so that we would not be forced into an untenable final position. We looked around at several possibilities, but we decide WE had to move into a more hospitable or user-friendly location. We received all kinds of legal papers relating to a Senior Campus Living, a retirement community, recently renamed the Erickson Retirement Communities, one of a dozen or so located mostly North East from Washington DC. We had these papers reviewed by an attorney and asked him as the bottom line whether he would place his own mother in such a place. He responded with a strong yes. We moved about 20 months ago into this community which has already grown to about 500 residents over the age of 62. We have sold our house and transferred the equity into this community, and as far as I know, this is the only such retirement home that guarantees a total return of that deposit. We pay a monthly fee, essentially as renters, and we get all free utilities with cable TV, but no phone, and one meal a day, and very importantly a gated and closed community patrolled day and night. All household maintenance, replacements and repairs, some transportation are part of this rent, and about the only chores I have is laundry (machine supplied) and cleaning, with assistance easily available. The community includes a bank, a salon, a clinic with medical staff, a little grocery store, a cafe, and entertainment (e.g., tours of museums, concerts at Kennedy Center, etc.) is organized by the residents. We have added security by having an alarm pull cord in each bath room and bed room notifying the front desk and the security office. The response to an alarm is an immediate call to the apartment to verify the needs while guards run with emergency equipment to the apartment and call the local ambulance if the need is subsequently indicated. Barbara has pulled that cord several times by accident although she WAS hospitalized twice after falling. The community staff increases as the community grows. We were most fortunate that our married children lived nearby and concurred with our decision and came to help in every way. They could take anything they wanted that we were willing to part with, and then arranged and handled the 'garage' sale which became necessary to down size to a two bed-room apartment. On the day of the move, Barbara went to stay with our Grand-daughter while the children helped the movers with the tactical problems, so that when Barb came home, she would have minimal problems. The heaviest packages were books ranging from classics to chemistry to nursing which were mostly donated to the local public library and many that we can visit in our own community (Greenspring) library. We are among the youngest couples here, and singles predominate, although the parents of one of another couple live here too and just celebrated their seventy third (73) anniversary. Some of this may be helter-skelter repeats of previous notes, but I was told that I may be allowed to forget periodically, which in my case may be called a junior moment. This was a hard decision and probably a final one, but it had to be made to ease the burden. Sending humor bits for the chapter papers, and tomorrow evening is the patient care exec meeting, Tuesday AM, caregivers meeting while the PWP exercise, Wednesday evening is chapter meeting with Larry Hoffheimer, chapter pres. to speak on Advocacy and PD (lobbying on Capitol Hill), Thursday AM working with Holocaust survivors who volunteer, and on and on. I could not do that if my daughter did not visit every Tuesday for many hours, and a hired care giver twice a week more so to give ME respite than for Barbara. Thank you, friends, for reading and responding. Time to turn off and turn in. Any questions? Michel Margosis 'Carpe Diem'