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Please help sweet Joe with Advanced Dementia stay in his assisted living home.
He is not your average Joe!
Our father, Joe, who is 89 years old, has dementia and lives in an assisted living home. He moved there six years ago with our mother, who has since passed away. They were married for 62 years, and like many people who lose their spouse, life can be difficult, as loneliness adds to the challenges of aging. Until now, they had saved up enough money and also had a long-term care insurance policy. All of the money has now run out.
He is at risk of losing his home as he has maxed out his long-term care insurance policy and has drained 100% of his life’s savings. With no means to pay for care, he would be forced into a nursing home. We are working to get our father on a Medicaid Waiver, which will pay for care in an assisted living home. However, the process is long and can take many months. Unfortunately, the state requires that you be down to your last $2,000 before being eligible for Medical Assistance. This leaves many people without funds for the monthly expense of long-term care, which for our father is almost $8,000 per month.
He just came out of over a month in the hospital and in-patient rehabilitation. He is truly not your average Joe. He fought off a severe infection of three resistant strains of bacteria for eleven days and crushed it in a month of in-patient rehab, recovering his muscles from not being able to sit up to walking 300 ft with his walker. He is a man of perseverance and conviction. We do not feel he would thrive in a nursing home. The assisted living home he lives in is wonderful, and they have applied to accept Medicaid payments but have no timetable exactly when it will be approved, but it is getting close.
His assisted living home is his community, and he is well-loved there and loves back. He just returned on February 7th and was greeted with applause by staff and residents, hugs and tears both ways, many expressing strong sentiments for how much he was missed. Several shared with us personally that they wondered throughout the month, “Where is Joe? He has been gone so long. When will he come back? Will we see him again?” He always has a smile, a joke, and a warm compliment. He lives with and verbally shares his gratitude for even the simplest things, and his beautiful outlook and demeanor seem to be contagious for others.
Our father is a happy-go-lucky man. He served in the U.S. Army and had an outstanding 45-year career as a custom cabinet maker. The furniture he built was the real thing, and he was a true artisan, with his passion reflected in his work. He was a member of community civic organizations, including the American Red Cross, where he was a volunteer driver transporting blood to area hospitals. He also raised money for cancer research and was a Boy Scout leader throughout our childhoods. He was also a gifted singer with an operatic quality voice. He still loves to sing and retains perfect pitch.
The thought of having to put him in a nursing home is devastating as he has adapted well in assisted living, has made many friends, and feels a strong sense of community and belonging there. He even gets to attend his Saturday religious service there, which has great meaning for him. He is happy, and that is what is most important. We feel that with his dementia, he will cease to thrive if transferred to a nursing home. To put it bluntly, he most likely would not live much longer if this happened.
Our goal is to raise $24,000, which will be enough to help us keep him in his assisted living home for the next three months. By that time, they should have their approval for Medicaid, of which he can qualify and be able to remain there. He is a good man who has helped many people in the community, and I hope others can help pay it forward to help him. We do not have the income to fund the majority of his expenses. However, we faithfully take him out every Saturday and Sunday to enjoy an activity, festival, waterfront, music, lunch, or dinner. Any assistance is sincerely appreciated!
Should our father pass before all raised funds are exhausted, any remaining money will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Organizer
