A Lesson to Be Learned

This month as I look out the window and watch the rain come down, I am reminded of just such a day in November that completely changed how a friend of mine viewed her home.  I hope that by sharing her story, some of you may look at your own homes more closely and not wait until you are in her position.

Once upon a time a single woman in her 40’s was so excited to be purchasing a new home (well, new to her at least).  She loved the neighborhood and the way the house sat up from the street, giving her a wonderful view of the neighborhood from the room that she planned to use as her studio/office.  Over the next few years she began to update some of the rooms in the house, adding decorative treatments to more closely reflect her own taste.  The kitchen and bathroom were original to the house, which had been built in the early 60’s and she liked the rather “retro” look, so no major changes were made there.
Then, after living in the home for about 10 years, she was diagnosed with Scleroderma, “a painful, incurable auto-immune disorder. Sufferers find their bodies gradually become encased in hard and tightening skin”.  The effects of this disease had been particularly obvious to her in the use of her hands.  They just weren’t that flexible any longer, and being able to grasp a door knob or the controls for her window treatments were becoming more and more challenging.  But she persevered.

One November day after a rainstorm she was out in her front yard and started back to the house.  Suddenly one foot slipped on the wet grass, and she began to slide down the hill in the front of her house.  Unfortunately her other foot had not made the turn with her body.  The diagnosis:  a broken ankle.  It proved a nuisance, but her sister came to stay with her and she hobbled up and down the stairs to her home very slowly on crutches, though grasping the crutches with her less than flexible hands was difficult.

Narrow bathroom doorways made it truly an exercise in patience to get in and out with crutches.  She limited how often she left the house as it meant negotiating the stairs from the house to the landing and then the turn to the stairs into the garage. Though she began to find the accessibility of her home lacking, that might have been the end of the story
Unfortunately,  while transferring from one chair to another in her home, she fell.  The diagnosis:  a broken hip.  Suddenly she ended up in the hospital with a broken hip and a broken ankle and then they planned a short rehab, then home to recover.  Therein lay the major challenge and that was where I came in.  She suddenly realized that the home she loved was a huge barrier to her recovery and could create huge challenges for her plans to “age in place”.  She was to be released from the hospital, but she had no place to go.  Certainly she could move to a convalescent or assisted living center, but even temporarily the cost was going to be a major detriment to that idea, as was the arguments she had to wage with her insurance company, and it would not solve the future issues.

The result was a call for a consultation to evaluate the possibilities to enable her to remain in her home, at least for the immediate future.  All this while she lamented not consulting with me before she purchased the home!

Luckily the closet in her studio was immediately above the exit from the garage which would allow her to install an elevator, thereby avoiding the two staircases leading from the garage to her front door.  Though we found a “relatively” reasonable elevator, the installation could not happen overnight, and she is currently waiting to leave rehab and return home.

Make your experiences positive by being proactive, not reactive.

About the author Drue Lawlor

Drue Ellen Lawlor, FASID, is a Fellow and professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers. For additional information please feel free to contact Drue at drue@education-works.com and reference "Staying Put" in the subject line.
More posts by Drue Lawlor