The following op-ed was published in The Tennessean in June 2022. Click here to see it in its native environment!
My wife Hannah Paramore-Breen and I met in our early fifties when Hannah bought a Groupon for a 2-for-1 golf lesson with me. Her vice president of sales said golf would be a great way to grow her marketing business, Paramore Digital. Three years later, I asked her on a date, and shortly after, we got married. Why did I wait so long to ask her out? Hannah will tell you I wanted to get her handicap down before being seen with her.
That first lesson was in 11 years ago (2011), and since then, Hannah sold her wildly successful business. Now, she consults for other companies, manages my marketing and schedule and caddies at the Senior PGA golf tournaments where I compete.
Since then, we have also gone through the arduous, heartbreaking process of placing Hannah’s mother into memory care after she started exhibiting signs of dementia. This process taught us so much and forced us to look at our futures.
With our young marriage and good health, we didn’t think we would already be considering our own senior care, but we saw how quickly things could change. We don’t want to be a burden to our children and want to have peace of mind that decisions have already been made for an aging process that feels true to us.
Last year, we purchased a long-term care insurance plan. Though long-term care insurance helps financially, it still left us with blind spots. Hannah realized one of them when she had a routine preventive procedure last year that required her to be put under briefly. I was out of town, so she had to ask my mother to take her and pick her up from the doctor. This may seem insignificant, but we decided that with our busy lives, aging parents and hardworking children, we didn’t want to ask our loved ones to step away in the middle of a workday. Hannah and I also experienced the difficult red tape and long waiting period of getting claims covered through long-term care insurance.
Through our planning discussions, we determined that the most important thing to us is being able to live at home as we age. Last year, we heard about LiveWell By Blakeford, a Nashville-based program that combines the connectedness of community living with the stability of receiving care at home when needed. As healthy, independent adults over 60 who want to plan ahead, LiveWell was the answer. We became members this year and feel like we finally solved the puzzle.
With LiveWell, we can sustain the independence that is so valuable to us, while having access to a range of services, control and flexibility, and a level of personal attention no conventional insurance can cover. While we’re still young and active, we use LiveWell for transportation by our personal Care Coordinator after a minor surgery, fitness assessments and a personalized wellness plan. We also have the assurance that when we reach the next level of aging, we’ll have dedicated help managing our home and health care. If we end up needing nursing care, our membership ensures access to that level of assistance and covers it financially.
Even though you may be approaching retirement, you may not be thinking about a plan for care as you age. Take it from Hannah and me that it’s worth investing resources into planning for senior care now so that you can live independently for the rest of your life.
