Six months ago, Lee Baiocco was living alone in her home in Yonkers, New York. It was the home she had lived in for 63 years—where she and her husband raised their two sons and daughter.
It was home.
“I liked my home,” Lee says. “But things change. My husband passed and I lived alone for 18 years. My friends moved away or passed. I found myself alone most of the time. When I fell and broke my arm, it was challenging to manage everything.”
Lee recovered, but her son Marc began to look for a new place for her to live.
Marc’s wife Carol says, “We moved to Honey Brook about four and a half years ago. We wanted to move Marc’s mom closer to us. We visited eight or ten places looking for the right fit.”
Carol continues, “Our daughter came for a visit, and we needed to take her dog to the vet. We ended up at Honey Brook Animal Hospital where Dr. Frankel works. He told us how much he loves living at Garden Spot Village, so we said, ‘Let’s make an appointment and go to one more place.’”
“Garden Spot Village had the best vibe. It had everything—community, friendly people. It was somewhere I wanted to live,” she adds.
Over the next few weeks, Marc and Carol talked with Lee, and she agreed to the move. On September 11, at 92, she moved to Mountain View Personal Care at Garden Spot Village.
“Since moving to Garden Spot Village, my mother-in-law has become a different person. I am so happy to see her thriving. She has become a social butterfly, enjoying conversations in The Coop, long after she has finished eating with her friends,” Carol says.
Lee agrees.
“The minute I walked into Garden Spot Village, my fear and stress fell off my shoulders, and I felt safe,” Lee says.
This sense of safety combined with beautiful surroundings, caring staff and friendly neighbors have been the key to Lee’s transformation. Today, she finds herself engaged in the community in a way she never imagined six months ago.
“I have plenty of friends. There are three of us who have lunch together in The Coop,” she says. If she finds herself alone because her schedule is a little different, she joins someone she doesn’t know yet. “Six months ago I would have never imagined sitting and talking with someone I didn’t know,” she says incredulously.
Carol adds, “We just wanted her to live a good life. When we visit, we see that she is thriving. I can’t say enough good things about our experience at Garden Spot Village.”
“I should have moved a long time ago,” Lee adds.