Independent Living Communities in North Canton, OH

"I visited Mulberry Gardens Senior Living. Everything is assisted living there, and it was gorgeous. I liked everything about it. The people were super nice and helpful, and there was a lot of space. The rooms were also beautiful and very spacious. I saw their dining area, and it was also very spacious, especially for people in wheelchairs. The staff who assisted me was wonderful. Some people were doing activities like crafts. They also had porches outside where they could sit and enjoy the weather. Anybody who goes there would love it."

"My sister is going back to Cardinal Retirement Village. She had an apartment there, and that's where she was when she fell and broke her ankle. It was very nice, though. It seemed to be well-managed. The rooms were nice. She was only there for a little over a month before she broke her ankle. They only asked for a three-month contract lease, and after three months, it's month-to-month, so that's a nice feature for them. Not having somebody sign a long-term lease is a good idea. The residents were very friendly, and the staff were very friendly, too. I think my sister said they usually have choices of what you get for your meals. With her only being there for four weeks and the experiences she had, I think she said the meals were good. The apartments were clean. Originally, she had a studio apartment, which was just one room with a kitchen area and a bath. What they have available now is a one-bedroom apartment, which is much bigger than the studio. She didn't like the studio because it was kind of small. My sister participated in some activities. They had bingo and other activities, but I'm not sure what they were. They were giving her a discount on her room, so that was a plus. The value seemed to be the standard value, but when I compared it to other places, they were slightly lower."

"The cheapest place here was Holiday Copley Place, but my husband does need some assistance. They were completely unassisted, but they were affordable. The people were excellent, and the community was beautiful, and everybody seemed well cared for. It was a very nice place. The room sizes were adequate. They weren't huge, but they were nice. The dining area was open and airy, and it seemed like people were there interacting, so that's nice. I liked it. They had a lot of places for people to gather. They had a patio area, and it was nice."

"I toured Brookdale Montrose. They have no pool, but they have two meals a day. It was very nice. I had lunch there and I had a hamburger. It was very good. As for activities, they have everything. They have an exercise room."

"I toured Vitalia Senior Residences at Stow. The place was gorgeous and very nice. Everything seemed like it was going to be great. It was very costly. It was probably going to be very costly for my mom's condition. She doesn't need two-person assist yet, but she needs a lot of assistance. They couldn't give me a price or an estimate or anything like that until she was assessed, whereas others could give me guesstimates at least. I just couldn't get pricing, and I was in a hurry because I wanted to get Mom out of the environment she was in. However, everybody was friendly. I met directors from different departments, and they were all very friendly. It looked like they had good activities too. The cleanliness was good. The room was nice."

"I toured Vitalia Senior Residences at Montrose. In the independent living, their townhouses and garages look like there is a lot of independence. The properties were beautiful and it's accessible. The staff was were very helpful. The food didn't seem as mushy and it tasted like regular food."

"I went to Eden Vista of Stow. We liked that it looked clean and homey, not like a big, fancy hotel. The apartments had a living area, a kitchen area, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The person who took us around was very friendly and very informative."

"Beautiful, friendly, independent environment that provides enriched activities, exercise and socialization. The staff is consistent, they know the residents and their families. Staff provides wonderful services with a smile. It truly is an atmosphere of nurturing a supportive home environment. As a daughter of a resident, I have always had access to management, providers and staff. They have been flexible in ensuring my mother’s needs are met with her changing health. I recommend Story Point Medina highly and with no reservations. I am glad to call Story Point my mom’s home."

"Hudson Meadows Retirement Community is a very nice facility, up to date and clean. The other place I toured offers townhouses but this one has all apartments. Their amenities are very nice. They have a snack bar and the food is very good. I ate a meal there and it was also very nice. They have a nice theater, they have a pool which is nice, and an indoor pool. They have a nice snack bar where you go, get popcorn or anything that you want."

"I am a current resident of Springwood of Hudson. I've only been here a couple of months. I was told about all the different activities they provide here, so I checked it out and here I am. I was reluctant to come over here. I'm 76 years old. I'm healthy but my husband died, and so I was feeling a little insecure. As soon as I came over, the manager here, Tammy, was just so welcoming and so helpful in showing me around everything, that I was hooked right away. She was great at answering all my questions and making me feel like this was the right place for me. It's not an old folks' home. Tammy does all kinds of activities with us, takes us to special field trips to different places. We have activities here in the big social area. Everybody here as well as the maintenance people are incredible, everybody does a really nice job, and everybody's friendly. This apartment is perfect for me. It is a large two-bedroom, two-bath, with a little balcony porch. There is an indoor parking area, which is nice, especially in the wintertime, to be able to park your car. It's really a lovely facility. The other thing that I really like about it is we back onto a lake and a golf course. I have the woods in front of me right now. As the leaves fall, then I'll see more of the lake and the golf course. You're not looking out at a bunch of other buildings. They do not provide meals. This is an independent apartment, so you get your own food, but twice a month they provide a meal like a breakfast. We have a breakfast for the community. There is a retirement home right next door, so we can go right over there for eight meals a month for free. On the 4th of July, we had a party and a big barbecue. This past weekend, we had another cookout and big party. They provide those kinds of things. They provide games, card games, and bingo. It's fun, we laugh and have a good time. Nobody gets upset or anything like that. Sometimes we go on a shopping trip or sometimes Tammy will take us to a nice restaurant someplace. We sign up for those things. Tammy will drive the little Danbury bus and provide transportation for us. We also have crafts. Several of the ladies here like to provide different crafts to teach us, hat making and some of the other things. Tammy does crafts with us as well. We've done some painting activities and some simple crafty things. We have something planned every day. Tomorrow, they are supposed to take a pontoon boat ride on one of the lakes. They have a men's breakfast. We have an exercise class once a week. They also have movies on Saturday nights. We have a big activity room which would also be where we have our meals and we play the games and do our different activities, but they have one of those big screen TVs and they'll put on Netflix and movies. They provide electricity, which is in your heating and air-conditioning. You have to pay for your own internet, but they provide the cable. I've lived in regular apartments before and this is very good. I'm getting the bang for my buck."

"We're living here. The appearance is very nice, and the layout is very convenient. The food is good, my wife is playing Scrabble right now, and I have played bingo. The facility has nice surroundings, the staff is very accommodating, and is very nice and helpful."

"Mom stayed at Independence Village of Aurora. She was in the assisted living side for a year and three weeks. The people were great. The workers were absolutely fabulous. They were polite, always giving instructions and patient. My mother was quite a character and caused a lot of ruckus there. They were always very kind to her and to me and my family. The facility itself was gorgeous. The only thing that I would have liked to have seen was someplace where you could do some exercises and stuff independently. I know that's really rough, especially on the assisted living side, but just someplace that had like a physical therapy bed or something that was 18 inches above the floor so people could go and do back exercises and things like that, but everything was good. The workers in the cafeteria, the ladies that ran the events and the activities, the ladies and the men that worked behind the desk were all just wonderful. Maintenance was absolutely superb. I never had to ask for anything twice. The nursing staff was wonderful. I can't say enough about it. The price was decent. I didn't think that they were gouging you at all for what you got out of it. Her apartment was a one-bedroom. She had a kitchen. What was a good selling point was that you have a full-sized refrigerator, you could bring in a microwave, you had a nice sink and plenty of counterspace. She was legally blind and had lots and lots of health issues, but she wanted to stay as independent as possible and this place really allowed her to do that. She had a nice walk-in shower, plenty of closet space and kitchen space. There's carpeting on the floor on hers, but they're starting to eventually get rid of all the carpet and just put the luxury vinyl flooring down instead, which is a much better idea. Everything was nice. We did have problems with the heater not working right in her room, and all the rooms were having a problem with that. You didn't have a lot of control over the thermostat and the airflow. That was the only complaint we had about anything structurally. I've recommended them to a lot of my friends. The food was good. They had a good selection and they followed a Mediterranean diet, which a lot the old people in that generation aren't real crazy about. Chef Rich was wonderful. Even when mom had to go to the pureed food, I was eating it with crackers because it was so good. It had plenty of flavor and spices. It was yummy, especially the salmon. They had beautiful flower arrangements. They do as much stuff outside as they can. They have that enclosed courtyard, which is fabulous. They have two of them, a smaller one for the assisted living, which could have used a little work, and then the bigger one that everybody could use, which was fabulous. They'd have concerts out there. They did all kinds of fun stuff and they had beautiful flowers everywhere. The lady that runs the housekeeping also took care of all the decorating inside and out. It's just breathtaking. She did a fabulous job with all that. They had tons of activities. The one thing that I would suggest is more activities for people who are sight impaired. They have a lot games and stuff, but no games that you can play that didn't require vision. She did all the exercise classes that they had. They had bingo, word games, card games, movie nights, trivia, craft making, and artwork, then they have a big party every Thursdays at 3:30 and they bring in live music and then they have free cocktails and everybody gets to have a good time. They always have a party for the holidays with lots of good music. It's definitely worth it. They do a lot of sports too. They did volleyball, baseball, and beanbag stuff. My mom loved the volleyball. The parking was good. They had a wonderful lock system. They changed over to these little electronic fobs that made it really easy to get in. The administrative staff was fabulous too. Susan was great, everybody there was. I never had a problem with anybody. They take trips, just local, like to go to the grocery store, and the independent people could very easily walk over to an outlet mall. They had a little sidewalk with steps just for them to go right from the back parking lot into the mall. It was all within walkable distance. All of her meals and all the activities were all online. I had that option too, not just a printed page."

"I toured Summit Point. It was clean and very organized. The staff was beautiful, answered all the questions, and even told us things that I probably would have forgotten to ask. They were very nice. The rooms were beautiful. They have help buttons all over if you need a hand. They had a shuttle service and they did group things as far as grocery stores and people wanting to go to the grocery store. Every Monday they went to a different grocery store. They put a calendar out. There was a lot for them to do. I've seen the dining area. It was beautiful. They had linens on the tables. They put out a menu, and if you didn't want what they had on the menu, they had an alternative menu for you to eat off of. They had like a little coffee shop there that you can get your coffee. You can do all-day coffee. And then they had a little grab-and go-section with snacks and whatnot. I thought that was beautiful."

The Waterford at St. Luke offers a homey community for seniors, with an extended family atmosphere. The facility offers spacious one- and two-bedroom apartments, wonderful food, fun outings and activities, as well as outstanding neighbors. The staff is always available to help residents live life to the fullest within the continuing care campus.