Live Event: MorningStar of Kirkland, WA, with Jennifer Graham

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Welcome to the answers for elders radio show. meet the trusted experts who will give you straight answers and it will help guide you on the path of later life care. Now here’s your host, founder, caregiver and CEO, Susanne Newman, and welcome everyone to answers for elders radio network. And we’re providing you this weekend with a very, very important and exciting new, fresh program Um. And, believe it or not, we are recording in Kirkland, Washington. We’re doing a live event and the exciting thing about being on the radio this weekend is that I wanted to personally come out to this amazing community and especially to those of you that are listening, Um, that are people of faith. This is something that you might necessarily not you know, want to definitely pay attention to this show. Um, if you’re a senior and you’re listening, or you maybe know you know mom or dad or have a loved one that you know. Maybe it is fully active, but they’re tired of maybe living in a great big house, they’re considering downsizing. They don’t necessarily wanna, you know, you don’t want to continue with maintenance and repairs and all the different things. You just want to live life again, maybe with your bucket list, you know. And so we’re here to talk about an amazing concept which is a hundred percent over fifty five. Um, yeah, intend plus fifty five, plus over living, independent living community. and Um, we’re here at morning stars senior living in Kirkland, Washington, and I’m here with their community relations director, Jennifer Graham, who has been on our show before. I have I have hello, hello, Susan, so good to see so good as always. Well, thank you. I think my hair’s gotten grace since the last time. No, no, no, you have an age. Oh Yeah, well, you know that’s okay. But anyway, so, Janifer, tell me a little bit how you ended up at Morning Star and how exciting to run into you here. I know, I I never thought that, Um, I was going to be at Morning Star. I actually never even heard of it. That sounds amazing, Um, but I met Um Stacy, who is a sales specialist, and she I met her at a vant meeting. We were Um, we were just talking about sharing each with each other, our communities, and I went morning star, tell me more, and you know, she goes, you know, Jennifer. It’s you know, we honor God in our business and practices and relationships. You know, we have a commitment to strong moral values and ethics and we value our seniors and it is a faith based community, but we don’t you don’t have to be in faith. But knowing that, the Thew copenny itself, Morning Star leads with that strong strength of valuing all seniors, leads with that Um and feels that seniors are gifted and contributing individuals, which I find so inspiring and so refreshing in a community. And so stacy brought me here and showed me and took me on a tour and in the back of my mind just what molly was talking about. I was looking for, uh, somewhere I wanted to work that had a faith base, and it’s almost like it’s like, oh my gosh, sure it is, here’s morning star. I was. I’m just amazed by what Ken Um is leading with, who are CEO and Um, you know, valuing all seniors is gifted and contributing Um. And and then they want to invest generously in our team’s ability to serve well. And I thought, oh my gosh, we lead each day with a radiance program where we honor our seniors, we honor who works here, Um, and then on top of that, we we provide an amazing kind of like I just did a tour and someone said, my sister is a cruiser and she goes, I feel like I was just on a cruise ship on land, you know, coming through here, and I’m like, yeah, that’s basically how we want you to feel. I had another residence say to me I feel like I’m on vacation every day here at the morning star of Kirkland. And then but look at us, look at our amazing residents and, Um, we have so much going on here. They’re so independent. Everybody’s waving to us as we go by, but that’s a good thing. We’re waving. We got the wave down. Um. But what I love about this community is the location. I called Janet, our executive director, and I and she listened to it and I think she thought it was just crazy, but I was like, oh my gosh, Janet, this has you can walk to Fred Meyer, you you can do a block away. There’s a dog park where you can walk down the trail to Lake Washington. You can hook onto a trail here to the Burke Gilman trail. You can walk under the four or five to go to Totam Lake. Yes, you know, this is something that I think morning star did so well. Is Our location, because oftentimes when a senior is choosing a community, they may not be driving anymore, they’re still very independent, very vital, but when you take that driving away from somebody, you lose your independence. Here you do not lose your independence. You can walk anywhere. Plus, of course, we’re in the center of everything here. We have Amazon, will deliver in an hour. We have our Fred Meyer will even deliver even though we’re across the street. I’ve already used them to deliver to us. I know I did it, but uh, but you know, also what it looks like. You know, seniors are residents, are family members. They’re so how to come here to visit, to visit their mom and dad because it’s so beautiful. They’re so proud to show it off. Our treehouse out Matt where you can do outdoor, outdoor living, outside with our I can’t even say in a restaurant and outdoor dining and but you know, people are proud and it is. It is a modern take on the Pacific northwest. It feels comfortable, it feels brand new and especially in Covid time, you know people want a brand new apartment no one’s ever lived in, and so that’s been a huge appeal and I think just people are so proud of it. And it feels like a resourt. So you have an indoor swimming pool, you have fresh dining here, made from scratch, you have a movie theater, you have a hair salon, you will workout Jim. You know, everything has been provided for you here. Another thing that I love and sometimes people say, Gosh, covid wasn’t so great, but you know what it did for independent living? It created something where everything can come to our residence here. So we have a primary care doctor that will come see you here, a doctor, a primary incredible. We have urgent care, dispatch health that can come see you if you don’t want to go sit in the waiting room at an urgent care, because, of course we’re still in the pandemic, we still are dealing with a vulnerable residents. And so you have a primary care, you have an urgent care that will come here. Um, we have a dentist that will come here and clean your teeth. You know, everything is here for you and so, like molly was saying before, you really what you what we all love about this community is you never really have to leave if you don’t want to. And in our liquid sunshine and the Pacific Northwest, sometimes people don’t want to leave it because they don’t want to go out in the rain. But I don’t know, I mean what else can you possibly ask for an immuity? Yeah, and I think really one of the things that I think is there’s a misnomer and and for those of you that you’re hearing the name Lolly, she’ll be coming up in this hour and so you’ll be hearing more about her. Um. But one of the things I think I’m so struck by, but when you even walk in, there’s this element. It feels intimate but at the same time it’s alive and open and it’s kind of a weird um way to describe it. But what I love about your lobby is it’s and everything around it’s so lively and and fresh and definitely northwest contemporary. So it’s as far as the design and everything like that, it’s all modern. It’s not, you know, you don’t see uh, you know, flowered grandma prints anywhere. It’s it’s beautiful. It’s for, you know, a younger mindset and I think that’s really the beauty of it. Um, I think you hit on just the key the mindset. We have residents that maybe on average or average age is seventy eight. Their mindset, though, still thinks are in the forties and we want to keep them there. Yes, the mindset is so important because you feel feel young and vital and we want them to continue to do that with that quality of life, and that’s so very important and having that twenty for our concierge is being here helps them feel safe. Of course, we are across the street from the police department, so it’s a very safe community anyways. But, Um, I agree with you. The feel is warm and inviting, Um, and, and that’s what we want you to feel, we want the families to feel, we want the ups driver to feel, we want everybody to feel invited. Yes, and warm. Yeah, and I think Jennifer, you definitely hit the nail on the head as far as what you know is the seniors. We start getting older. I’m feeling it and I’m sixty six and I got I’m sixty six and I and I but I feel it and I feel you know, my body, trust me, knows that I’m sick. But the thing is is that even just to be climbing stairs and more, it’s hard. It’s hard to live in, you know, in sometimes an area. That’s if it’s a lot of stair wards to get into your house or there’s a lot of mobility challenges. Your bathroom is can be a definite situation where maybe there might be some accident issues, things like that. You’re really making your giving yourself a safer place to be and everything upgraded. And the Nice thing is is that all the things that you had to occupy your time with, which is your you know, shopping, maintenance, Um, all the planning, all the you know, the house cleaning, all those included me the menu or a restaurant. You’re you’re taking care of your and housekeeping. We Change Your Linens, we clean your linens, there’s full size washer and dryers in your apartments. I mean, check us out. You should see us. We’re at Morning Star, a living dot com, or do morning star of plan and you should really check us out. We’re really amazing. You could call us to at four to five, nine seven, nine, five six two six. You can come and tour with me or Ashley, my Co Director. We’re happy to see you anytime. Walk Ins. Absolutely and you know it’s thank you for an opportunity for us to speak about this amazing community. We’re so honored your your thank you know, you’re so, so fighting my gosh and I just I love that you’re you’re showing us off, showcasing us, because morty star needs to be seen as it does, and your family member or you, if you’re listening to us out there and you want a place like this, come to us. We’re worth the look and if you’re in the Kirkland area, please check us out. We’re really honored that you’re listening today. Yes, and the other side of it. Just so you know, if you’re listening to us on PODCAST, Morning Star has thirty sun communities across the United States, so mostly Um Iowa, westbound. So if you if you’re listening and you’re inspired by this message, please look up morning stars Senior Living Dot Com and you can see all the different types of communities around Um and so, Jennifer, thank you so much for being with me again. Morning Stars Senior Living Dot Com or the number is four to five, nine, seven, nine, six to six, and I hope to see you soon. Thanks so much. We at answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website and discover our decision guides. That will help you also navigate decision making. Find US AT ANSWERS FOR ELDERS DOT COM.