April 6, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by Dow Rummel Village.

Victoria didn’t mince words when it came to how she felt about moving out of her longtime Sioux Falls home.

“Take me out with a crowbar or a coffin because I’m not leaving,” she remembers saying.

But a few years ago, friends invited Victoria and her husband to an event at Dow Rummel Village.

“We walked through it and were very impressed,” she said.

He had health issues, “and we said we’d better start looking because we’re not going to be able to stay in that house forever,” she continued. “And we already knew people who had been there from three to 11 years and really liked it.”

Jim Sturdevant recalls his parents, Lyle and Verla, having a similar experience.

“They moved to Dow Rummel from a home in Brandon they’d lived in 40 years,” he said. “They had friends there and had visited in the past and knew it was comfortable, so once they decided to go to a retirement community, Dow Rummel was their only choice.”

Both point to several distinct advantages living at Dow Rummel.

For the Sturdevants, independent living provided five years of time together with no worries of maintenance, lawn care or the need to cook if they didn’t feel like it.

“It made the transition away from their car easier,” Sturdevant said. “Because Dow Rummel has a shuttle to a grocery store, they can and did live there without a car the last couple years, so that’s a big advantage. You can get rides where you want to go.”

For Victoria, the experience at Dow Rummel became different from what she’d envisioned when committing to a two-bedroom apartment on the third floor with her husband.

“We’d put ourselves on the waitlist, but if you get to the top and say no because you’re not ready, they don’t move you to the bottom. You stay at the top,” she said. “We said no a couple times, but eventually we just knew it was time to get out of the house.”

At Dow Rummel, “the staff was so warm and kind and everything you would want staff to be,” she added. “From whoever was cleaning the hall to the CEO. You felt so welcomed.”

They moved in, sold their house six weeks later and went to Arizona for the winter, where her husband passed away.

“It was very hard to come back from Arizona without him,” Victoria said. “But the staff was so kind and helpful, as were my neighbors who I barely knew, that I decided I was going to stay.”

Now, she appreciates everything about Dow Rummel.

“Everything is under one roof. Absolutely everything,” she said. “I’ve used so many of their services. If you don’t want to cook, you can just go down to the dining room. You don’t need a reservation. And there’s good food at the restaurant.”

She has enjoyed the fitness room, swimming pool and chair yoga.

“I’ve used physical therapy. I’ve used home health. I used home health to deliver food during COVID,” she said. “I’ve had my carpets cleaned. If you’ve got a lightbulb out, you call maintenance, and they know which bulbs to bring, and they’re there in 30 minutes. They once apologized it took 45 minutes. It’s that level of service, that level of care.”

And there’s plenty to do for fun, she added.

“We not only have a chapel but a facility for recitals and concerts, a movie theater, a hair salon. You can get manicures and pedicures. It’s totally whatever you need,” she said.

“It’s just lovely. I’m so happy to be there, and my kids, who live in Minnesota and Colorado, are happy because they know I’m taken care of.”

Sturdevant can relate to that. His parents spent five years in independent living together until late last year, when his father’s health required Lyle to move to assisted living and then the Eva Allen Healthcare Center, which offers skilled nursing care.

He passed away in January.

“My parents were married 71 years, and because of how Dow Rummel is set up, my mom was able to help my dad go to bed every night,” Sturdevant said.

“What I’ve learned is that if you have both parents still with you and able to move easily, they should move to independent or assisted living while they can still move together, and with good planning you can keep them under one roof if they require additional care. We could graduate my dad from independent to assisted to nursing all while staying inside where they know the staff, and it’s just a very  comfortable, safe place.”

His mother now is in a flexible apartment that allows her home health and assistance as needed, Sturdevant said.

“Things like prescription management, where residents don’t have to worry about making sure they’re taking the right pills at the right time,” he said. “Or if my mom needs physical therapy because of a swollen ankle, they can take care of it and take her to therapy. When my dad was in assisted living, they’d help with bathing and take him to a whirlpool once a week, so it’s just whatever the resident needs.”

Dow Rummel’s full continuum of services includes:

• Independent living, offering multiple floor plans and a wide variety of amenities and activities.
• Assisted and an enhanced assisted living, providing help with tasks such as managing medications, dressing and bathing as well as services such as housekeeping and dining.
• Short-term care to assist with rehabilitation.
• Long-term care that includes a wide range of skilled nursing services.
• Memory care, offering a wonderful environment ideal for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
• Respite care, giving caregivers a temporary rest while having peace of mind that their loved one receives quality care in a safe environment.

“I have nothing but good things to say about Dow Rummel, and mainly it’s because of the staff,” Sturdevant said. “They care, they cry when the residents get sick, and they cry a lot when they pass. The quality of care is just as high in every part of the building.”

To learn more and connect with Dow Rummel, click here. Or sign up for an April 12 Lunch & Learn event. Click here to learn more and RSVP.