Brookridge Decision

After the difficult dealings with Mary Ellen’s father, we decided we didn’t want to put our children through all that hardship. I had visited the Baptist Retirement Community, Brookridge, in Winston Salem , NC when attending a NC Baptist State Convention in Winston Salem. Mary Ellen and I later visited Brookridge and decided to file an application for an Independent Living Apartment at the facility. The application included a financial statement and physical report on both of us. Much to our surprise, we were accepted and put on the long waiting list. That suited us fine because we didn’t feel like we were ready to go at that time. (I don’t know that we will ever feel like we are ready to go, but we know that we probably should go.)

The procedure for moving includes a sizeable entrance fee. We would have to sell our house to come up with enough money. It sounds ridiculous to have to pay that much, but it assures that we will not be put out even if our assets are depleted. At Brookridge, once we are in, we can stay all the way through assisted living, and nursing care. The facilities include an indoor swimming pool, exercise room, recreation, transportation to shopping and more.

After about 4 years on the waiting list for Brookridge, we had moved up to third on the list. We would only have 30 days to sell the house once we were notified of an opening. Houses weren’t selling that fast. We tried “word of mouth” and eliminated a couple of prospects. Then we ran a classified ad in the local paper. We had one call, but no lookers. We finally decided to give it to an agent. One of our church friends recommended a Christian agent. His 6 mo. listing had run out before he came up with a serious prospect.

Although there were already two pleasant black families in the neighborhood, the neighbors on each side of our house expressed a desire not to have a black next door. Neither neighbor wanted to buy our house and they realized that we would not have a choice if the agent came up with a black prospect. Well, the prospect is a black Christian lady school teacher without a husband and with a small child. She had played basketball on the school team with Nancy.

Needless to say, she bought the house, but not without a hassle. She hired a very thorough inspector to check for problems. He found a few, and we fixed them. The inspector said that a portion of the roof may need to be replaced in four or five years. The prospect wanted us to compensate her for that. Another problem was the water. The water from our shallow well was acid and had caused some of the copper pipes to leak. The leaky pipes had been replaced with plastic pipes, but there was still some copper left. I had installed a soda ash dispenser to neutralize the acid. The inspector assured her that the soda ash would prevent any more problems with the copper pipes. She was reluctant but the sale finally went through.

David sold his property he was buying from the farm corporation and bought some property adjacent to the farm he and Ruth Ann owned, and lived on, near Bailey, NC. The new property included a small frame house. David had central air and heat installed, painted inside and out and put in new carpet. He was going to let us rent the little house for $300 per month. It was taking so long to sell our house that we told him to go ahead and rent it. He found a reliable renter right away.

When our house finally sold, we had to decide on a place to live until Brookridge called. We decided to buy a nice used travel trailer to park at a campground. (L’tl Rover was a bit too small and old. We had already given it to Jeff) We found a 27’ 2001 model travel trailer with a slide-out that we could afford.

Jeff to the rescue! He lives on a two acre lot near Kenly, NC. His house is in a private neighborhood with a tight community organization. The community agreed to us living on his property in the travel trailer. We prepared a dump station so our waste water could go into his septic tank, added a water line and electric hook-up. We looked at ready-built storage buildings, but prices were too high for buildings that were too small. We bought a kit for a 12’ X 16’ building and put it up near the camper site. We had it ready by time we had to move. We stored the things we will use at Brookridge in the building.

Soon after we settled at Jeff’s, Brookridge called with a one bedroom apartment available on the 5th floor. After looking at the apartment, we decided we weren’t quite ready yet. Also, Mary Ellen didn’t like the 5th floor. We are still next on the list.

Of course, there isn’t room in the camper for the computer, freezer, all of our supplies, etc. I packed the things I thought we wouldn’t need in the back and rafters of the storage building and arranged the front part with the computer table, freezer file cabinet, small desk, sewing machine, safe, portable wardrobe and some shelves - all accessible.

We pay Jeff for our electricity. We ran cables for cable TV and internet service. His cable and Road Runner service allows extra set and hook-ups with out additional charge. Jeff is set up as his own internet server, so my e-mail address is meb@myersmail.net. (the meb is for Mary Ellen, Bill.) We can use that e-mail address at Brookridge. We use our cell phone that is still a Wilson number. We have enough pre-paid minutes, for nation-wide service, to cover our needs. We use their washer and dryer. Sheila often brings us left-overs to eat.

I usually spend an hour or two working in the yard. I have filled in several places that had washed out and plugged some grass in bare spots. There is still more to do.

Mary Ellen keeps up the house-work and reads a lot. We like to go places together - like to visit my sister, Jane, her aunt in VA and friends in VA.

The 9/11 terrorists attack on the World Trade Towers caused quite a slump it the earnings on our savings. Even if Brookridge would accept us with the lower income, we would have to dip into our savings to meet all our obligations.

Jeanie and her husband, David, have been after us since Brookridge talk began, to consider living near them where they and their children could help with our increasing needs. Well, the small house their large family was living in in Albemarle was being sold so they had to move. David had continued to work in the Southern Pines area the whole time they lived in Albemarle - about a 60 mile trip to and from work each day. David and Jeanie found a 1.6 acre lot with a larger house and a small cottage near Southern Pines. They bought it.

We sold the camper and used the money to remodel the cottage and build a storage building and garage. Now we have a comfortable 3 room place to live.

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