Whenever a family begins to debate the notion of “sending mom to a nursing home,” it’s certain to involve a lot of angst-ridden conversations and traumatic emotions like fear and frustration. Many families find themselves in a constant state of distress and disagreement as the signs of ill health, dementia and, sometimes, Alzheimer’s Disease, creep insidiously into their lives to create a harsh, new and painfully unfair reality for all involved.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. Despite the many and varied challenges of slowly losing a loved one to the ravages of age and Alzheimer’s-related memory loss, it is possible to make sure they are cared for in a way that nurtures their minds and attends to their physical comfort with gentle attentiveness and respect.

Rather than parking old folks in the proverbial corner and letting them waste away in an institution where you’re lucky if the only indignity they suffer is a steady diet of benign neglect, a more reasonable and noble choice is not to “put mom in a home” but to give her a new place to call her own, a place where the mantra of “continuous, compassionate care” means she is cherished and challenged, and tended to in an way that ensures daily opportunities for shared smiles and silver linings.

That choice is Teays Valley Assisted Living and Memory Care -- a small, home-like community founded by people who experienced the same sense of loss and indignation with their own parents’ situations and who were inspired by their grief and losses to make things better for others.