Helen McCann had just lost her husband when she started thinking about where she wanted to live. She knew it wasn’t in the home they once shared that was now too large for one person. But where?
“I wanted a community where I could have privacy and a sense of community, Helen said. “I wanted an apartment on the ground floor, no stairs. I did not want a hallway. I also had two dogs and, you’d be surprised, but not every retirement community is thrilled with that.”
She found everything on her floor-plan checklist – along with a friendly welcome for her dogs — at Vista del Monte, a continuing care retirement community in Santa Barbara.
Complete with a newly remodeled dining room and a fitness and aquatic center that boasts a professionally recognized senior fitness program, the 9.5-acre campus is just a mile from the beach and five minutes from downtown.
At Helen’s courtyard home, the patio door opens onto a garden area surrounded by a low fence and a lush forest of ferns.
But while Helen appreciates a division between public and personal spaces, fellow Vista del Monte resident Jan Purcell revels in the neighborly camaraderie offered by her cheerful second-floor apartment she moved into nearly eight years ago. Its patio and picture windows look onto a canopy of jacaranda and pepper trees.
“I try to keep the door open, so if anyone wants to stop in and chat, they can,” Jan said.
Find your ideal home
The fact that Helen and Jan both found their ideal, yet very different, living arrangements at Vista del Monte, highlights what makes the campus a best choice for anyone considering senior living community options.
“There are so many ways to make the Vista del Monte experience uniquely your own,” said Sales and Marketing Manager Wendy Cafferky.
Vista del Monte offers independent living, assisted living and memory care onsite. Services included in the monthly fee, with or without a continuing care contract, range from housekeeping and chef-prepared meals to on-site security and an emergency call and response system for added peace of mind.
Additional-fee services include guest rooms for visitors, an on-site salon and barber shop, and non-emergency nursing and other support services. For residents in need of a little more TLC, the Truly Yours program offers a variety of plans that include assisted-living services such as medication management, bathing, dressing and more, in the privacy of their home at Vista.
Stay healthy, fit and engaged
Already an avid swimmer before moving to Santa Barbara, Helen loves having access to the Vista del Monte Fitness & Aquatic Center (FAC) as a major benefit. The shallow-water, heated exercise pool offers aqua aerobics, water volleyball and Helen’s personal favorites: lap and open-swim sessions. An “endless pool” is Vista’s newest feature, which is available for lap swimming against a gentle current or for physical therapy.
The FAC’s strength-training and conditioning room is also exceptional. Jan agrees. Still recuperating from recent hip-replacement surgery, she is looking forward to kicking up her heels at an upcoming dance in the main lounge.
“I’m just going to start moving around and getting some other people out there on the dance floor with me,” Jan said, laughing.
Continue doing what you love as you begin a new journey at Vista del Monte. Find your ideal home among friends in a truly exceptional senior living community. Call or email us today for a tour at 805-687-0793 or VDMsales@frontporch.net.
