MARC AGRONIN: Tom and Beverly were both optimistic and foolish. They were incredibly excited about Tom’s retirement from teaching and Beverly’s retirement from nursing because they could spend more time pursuing their lifelong loves of skiing and hiking. They sold their home and moved to a small community in the rural Northeast, anticipating it to be their retirement Shangri-La.
But in their calculations they left out two major factors; Tom’s mild but evolving memory deficits and Beverly’s rheumatoid arthritis. Within 18 months of their move, Tom was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and Beverly was facing increased pain and physical disability from flare-ups of her swollen joints. Unable to fully engage in their intended activities and bereft of sufficient support from long-standing family, friends and physicians who no longer lived nearby, Tom and Beverly scrambled to adapt. But the bottom line was that everything they moved for was in jeopardy, and they felt stuck.