Mary, Queen of Angels

Mary Queen of Angels is a brick building, built around in the '80s or '90s. It was an extremely well-built building with crown molding on the walls, hooks on the back of doors, and plenty of closet space. The residents were extremely cordial and seemed to be very happy. They had a celebration center for those people in the early stage of dementia and Alzheimer's, but they don't mix them with the other residents. They have a preferred pharmacy, so the cost of my drugs is very low. As far as medication management, the people that handle the drugs on the floor are caregivers and not nurses. The nurses pretty much control the ordering and ensure that the medicine comes in to each room and gets places in a cabinet for non-narcotic medicines. Fortunately, the pharmacist packages the medication according to how it is dosed, so the caregiver just pull out the medication and give it to the residents to take. For narcotics, the resident has to get it from the bubble pack and pop it out; they're not allowed to do it.

I did like Mary, Queen of Angels, but it had kind of a nursing home feel a little bit. It seemed more like a building on concrete. My mother-in-law loves her yard and the outdoors, so I think the main thing that turned me off was the lack of that. There wasn't a lot of outdoors. There wasn't a lot of greenery that made it feel more like being at home like in your yard. Food was fair. The rooms were very small. With regards to sanitation, it felt more like a nursing home type place. It wasn't dirty, but I wouldn't put my mother-in-law in there.

Mary, Queen of Angels is run by the Catholic Church. I’m familiar with it, and I know where it is. I was there, and they showed me around. It’s a very nice place. It’s clean and well kept and more like a home. That’s what you want to live in -- a place like that. The staff was friendly, helpful, and answered questions. We saw a couple of rooms over there. They were adequate sizes, and were all nice. I was pleased I got the information that I needed. I’ve seen their dining room, and it was well-lighted. To me, the place was adequate for the service of people who live there. They have church services, and they have fieldtrips. If I go to a facility, that’s probably the one I would choose.

The Mary Queen of Angels was the one that my dad said that he would agree to go to. He mainly chose it. He's been there about six weeks now. We liked the way it looked and the people were very nice and the food was good. His church bus would pick him up there so he could continue to go to his regular church. It was nice and so it worked out.