Our team recently sat down with Marguerite, a resident at Parkland on the Glen, to talk about her experience at Parkland. Marguerite moved to Parkland in March in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and had this to say:

Why did you choose Parkland?

I have to say as soon as Parkland opened 10 years ago, I thought this was a beautiful location. So you can say I’ve had my eye on this place for 10 years. And then when the day came when I was actually contemplating a retirement home, I had lost my husband and I didn’t want to stay in the big house. I looked at a few retirement homes and what I liked about Parkland was when I came into the lobby and sat waiting for a meeting, the residents were all smiling. The staff were smiling and joking with each other. And the other thing that I found was unique about Parkland was there were different options. So for myself, I’m still in my 70s, I’m relatively healthy, I was still willing and able to make some of my own meals – even do my own cleaning and my laundry, things like that. I can still be in charge of my own medications but I also knew the day would come that I might need more help and I can do that staying right in this same facility and just changing plans.

What activities are you involved with?

Well, I go three times a week to a fitness class called Dance Fit – I’m enjoying that very much. I go to Stitch and Chat on Wednesday mornings. I usually go to Bingo Friday mornings. Guided Meditation on Saturday mornings. I go down for Jeopardy and I go down for movies in our theatre.

What advice would you give people thinking about Parkland?

I would say come on over and see for yourself. Take the tour, see what the options are – the different sizes of units and talk to people here about their experience because I think you’ll find that it is a very welcoming community. I’ve only been here since March and I feel at home.

What was your experience during COVID-19?

During Covid of course it was hard on everyone no matter where they were. But one thing that I really feel from that time, and even now, is gratitude for the way the staff took care of us. They came to work everyday to make sure that we got our food, that we had our temperatures taken. And even more than that there were treats dropped off at our suites, there were puzzles, there was communication. I’m finding I feel very much at home.