Sunrise at Orchard

At first I would have given this place 4 stars because, basically, all retirement homes have this aspect to them, that it’s where (to quote the sign on Homer’s dad’s home in The Simpsons) «the old and infirm bide their time awaiting the inevitable». It’s not really the place you _​want_​to be.
So let me explain why I give it 5 stars. First off, my Dad is near the end of his life and has been living for 3 years in the memory loss ward where the door is locked with a key access. It sounds grim and boring doesn’t it? But I spend a lot of time in here, and I like it here! It has toys and fun things on the floor for kids to play with and check out. It has lovely and fun staff. It has volunteers coming by playing violin and piano and guitar. Today they had the football game and then the basketball game on and it was a blast! Sure, there’s something a bit surreal about all this sort of stuff — it’s a completely modern invention — we dump our kids into schools for ten years, and then dump our aged into homes for ten years. But my 5 year old likes coming here, and that’s saying a lot! They have free popcorn and coffee and a lobby dog.
The food is good (today I had pork cutlet with potatoes and kale; yesterday I had lobster linguini with asparagus). The staff is great. The front desk and lobby are cozy and unpretentious. It’s not expensive. With not being expensive, comes not being needlessly fancy — it’s kind of like grandma’s house. For a while after a broken hip my Dad stayed at a place down the road, which is super fancy and like a ski lodge, where they had a therapy center. There was no fun in the place — I think a lot of these places want you to think you aren’t where you are. Also parking means a lot, and Sunrise at Orchard is small and parking close to the building is easy.
Plus, it’s right across the street from Panera so you can go grab food and right next to the library so you can go read a book. And if your parent has Alzheimers then you come back in an hour and they’re so happy to see you again, it’s always a brand new day!
Now my dad has a couple of days left. He moved back here from the hospital, into hospice care, back to his old room. They know him and love him. They come by the room to help him with things, and are always saying sweet things to him, «we love you Gunnar». And they bring me food and drink and don’t care if I set up a mattress on the floor and spend the night.
So I want to give them a big thumbs up. It’s where my Mom wants to come when it’s her turn to have somebody cook for her and just sit around doing crossword puzzles. Oh, and they have a GREAT large garden in the back, especially for the memory loss patients, so they can wander around, have a smoke or whatever. And there are 4 exits, all key-​access, so you can come in and out in a few different ways (good ‘feng shui’). For the ‘younger’ patients, they go on all kinds of outings, movies, restaurants.
Good luck finding a place for yourself or for your parents!