Assisted Living Communities in Birmingham, AL

"My sister and I saw Longleaf Liberty Park's assisted living, although we did not realize at the time that it was assisted living. It was a lovely place in every way, but it just didn't fit our needs because we were not quite at the assisted living stage yet with my sister. The rooms were very nice, and the decor was lovely. You wouldn't feel like you were in a retirement facility. It looked more like a home rather than an institution. It was very colorful and I liked that. The rooms were fine, but then we realized it was assisted living, which kind of upset us a little bit. I didn't think there were as many available activities, and I understand why. If it's assisted living, of course, you might have some of the residents in wheelchairs so they couldn't go on a lot of excursions, perhaps. They had a beauty shop, and I think they even had a little small workout room with maybe some little weights in there if someone wanted to come and do chair aerobics. They certainly had things available for the residents who live there."

"I toured Monark Grove at Greystone. It was awesome. It was nice. The lady was nice. We had a good conversation. She showed me around every place and everything. We looked at some apartments. Everything is good. They have everything, a stove, a refrigerator, and all that stuff. The bedroom was fine. My main concern was having enough room for all my stuff because I have a lot of stuff, and the one I saw was big enough. They've got a patio with an outdoor grill. They also have an indoor pool. When I went by, I said, "Did anything go in there?", and she said, "No, it's a low-level pool, it's only so many feet, and it's not like the regular pool". So that was cool."

"My tour of The Crossings at Riverchase went well. The facility is only three years old, so it is very modern, and I like that. It was very clean. They had a pretty low turnover for the staff, at least up to that point. The staff who gave the tour was very knowledgeable. She has been in the business for a long time."

"I visited the Gardens of Pelham. I was very impressed with it. It was very professional. I got a very good tour. They explained how everything worked. I was satisfied with the way it was set up. They showed me the rooms and the different levels of care they had, took me to the cafeteria, where the clients lived, and showed me how they provided different care for them. They explained to me about the social workers and the other medical personnel who came out for them while they were there. It was good. It just wasn't a good fit for my husband. The facility was pretty and looked homey. It looked like whoever would be there would enjoy it."

"We toured the Morningside of Vestavia Hills. I liked the cordialness of the person taking us around. We stopped and met with several of the residents. It was very pleasing, and they were very professional and had great meals. It was just very eye-opening. The interesting thing that we did learn to separate from this thing is that independent living doesn't mean you can't live there if you're in a wheelchair or anything, so that was encouraging. They were just very informative, very professional, and very pleasant. We would suggest people take a good look at that. The building is older."

"I toured Somerby at St. Vincent's One Nineteen. It's a huge place, three or four stories, which was a long walk for my mom. My mom went on the tour with us and she was exhausted. They have benches to rest, but it does have a lot of walking, which can be a good thing, but if you want to get where you're going it's a walk. We ate there and the food was excellent. They have a craft room that Mom enjoys. They have crochet, which is the craft that she likes best of all. They have a pool, a workout room, and a rehab facility."