January Regional Senior Housing Directory 2018 | The Senior Reporter 7
was difficult for me.”
Gordon has three meals a day at
Westwood. “The waitresses are
just wonderful. It’s better than
being in a restaurant. They give us
a published menu and ask us what
I want. I love the soups. There’s a
tablecloth and cloth napkins. You
are lucky if you ever get a paper
napkin,” he laughs.
“There are four of us who sit at a
table. We get along very well,” he
adds. He always sits with the same
group. “The older gentleman at
my table is 104 (years old). I think
that’s pretty remarkable. He’s pretty
sharp too.”
Gordon continues, “Once a week
they come in to clean the apartment,
and they do our laundry if we want
them to. And I don’t have to shovel
snow.”
Charlotte Moyer
Other photos that can be used
include Front entrance after sunrise.
jpg and Welcome Rework.jpg
Charlotte Moyer has lived at
Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth for
three years.
Both in their 90s, Charlotte and
her husband, John, had been very
active their entire lives. John had
loved the Boundary Waters, and in
retirement they had become avid
golfers and dancers. “We had a
cabin. We did everything we ever
wanted to do,” Charlotte says.
“On December 6, 2014, John fell
coming out of a grocery store,
and he went into rehabilitation at
Ecumen. At that point, our lives
changed,” Charlotte explains. “I
saw he wasn’t recovering from
his hip break and arm surgery.
The apartment where we were
living didn’t have a bathroom that
was wheelchair accessible, so I
knew we couldn’t go back there. I
thought the best thing for us was to
move over here.”
The move was a relatively smooth
transition for them. “We had
downsized twice before—once
to move to Arizona and after 32
years there, to move back to Duluth
into an apartment,” she says. “We
have five children. When they get
together and pool their talents,
nothing is impossible. They took
over and moved us over here.
The one fault about this single
apartment is the closets are too
small. So my son went to Ikea and
bought a wardrobe and set it up into
the bedroom, and that was perfect.”
She talked about other parts of the
transition “We had to give up the
cars, and that was hard. I have
Charlotte Moyer has created a warm atmosphere
in her apartment at Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth,
combining family heirlooms with furniture that
fits the one-bedroom apartment setting.
Gordon Richardson relaxes in the Fireside Room
at Westwood Assisted Living in Duluth.
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