Not your mother’s old-age home

February 20, 2009
by Susan Carpenter

Let me tell you that my mother came to live with me five years ago and that every day for her last five years, as she grew increasingly forgetful and frail, I brought her to My Second Home at Radio Circle in Mt. Kisco at nine in the morning and picked her up at the end of my workday, at 5:30 in the evening.

Every morning she was greeted with smiles and then spent the day in a place where she was wanted and safe, where she had social contact with other elders, a loving staff and with children who not only called the seniors their “grandmas” and “grandpas” but played and worked with them like the family they became. Young children, in daycare on the other side of the building, ate lunch, played music and gardened with seniors, and also learned to enjoy racing to hold doors open for them at the end of the day.

You can’t imagine what a far cry this innovative intergenerational program is from the institutionalized care in which many of us saw our grandparents end their days. You may find you need My Second Home someday for your mom or dad. Thank goodness it’s there.

Susan Carpenter has lived in New Castle for 22 years and has served on New Castle’s Open Space Advisory Committee, the Conservation Board, and currently sits on the Planning Board. 

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