"Aegis Living Lake Union was perfect for my husband. It was just a month of respite, but he didn't want to come home. He had a lovely accommodation in that it wasn't down a long and dark hallway or something that looked like a Holiday Inn. It was just such nice accommodation. I would have to say it was expensive, but for the eight years that I haven't had any kind of respite for him, where I could go away, I figured it was worth it. Aegis Living Lake Union was great. My husband would love to go back, but it was maybe more expensive than we can afford.
I like how professionally they brought us in for the initial moment we arrived. It was family-oriented. They were caring about me, and they were caring about him. The whole entryway of the place is conducive to that. It's very welcoming. It's kind of like a special hotel as opposed to just a desk where you walk up. It was lovely. More than one person came from the office and met with us and asked us what we were interested in, and they listened. The most important thing was that they clearly listened instead of just putting on a sales pitch.
My husband stayed there like a resident. They gave him an apartment. He had his own bathroom and a place for a refrigerator. They showed us three or four rooms that he could have, and we chose the quieter one. So, he had a lovely room that looked out on trees and everything. It was good for him. They went overboard with any accommodation. Like he couldn't use the television remote very well, so they got one that had big numbers on it, so he could see it better. They facilitated it within minutes of our asking or mentioning that he had difficulty with it. They made calls, and in two days, it arrived. That's the kind of service it offers. It was truly amazing.
Overall, my husband thought everyone was fantastic. Whenever I was there, I would say the same. They have a very special chef from the Metropolitan. He was a chef downtown in Seattle in a restaurant everyone knows. He is probably one of the best. The food was so good. He had his choice of whatever. If he wanted a sandwich, he could have it. He can have anything, and they said that 24 hours a day, he could order from the kitchen.
The building looks brand new, but it's been there for a little while. It's a LEED-certified business, so everything is up to the standards that they have for recycling water. They recycle all their gray water. It's amazing. It's super clean. It's exceptional.
I've visited a couple of others, and I saw what their activities were about, and what a difference! Here, they have a grand piano in the foyer as you go in there. There is a sort of common area. It's very welcoming. They have a cafe where anyone can walk up and get espresso, regular coffee, and tea. You can just go up, and you don't have to ask anybody. It's not hard to find, too.
The way it's designed is that they have big windows, so that the nature, the trees, and everything reflect right into the space. My husband is not someone to come and listen to music, but in the afternoons, they have a variety of live music throughout the week. Someone either plays the grand piano, or people come in and play violin from the symphony. It was amazing.
Every day, they have these games and things that you could participate in if you want to, or you could just sit there and read the paper. They have Jeopardy games, and they were fun and easy for people to do. A lot of participants came down. Another feature about this is that it has 51% men, which is unusual. They weren't necessarily impaired. Some were, of course, but many of them were widows who didn't want to keep up their homes anymore. They knew they were getting into their 80s and wanted to make sure they didn't fall or whatever, and so here they came, and it was great. My husband made a lot of friends, which was amazing."
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