Monroe House is home to two generations

MOSES LAKE - Marie Heist, 96, has Alzheimer's disease and lives in the Monroe House, a Moses Lake retirement center.

That part of her story isn't so unusual, but what's surprising are her neighbors down the hall.

They are her daughter, Jaci Rice, 75 and son-in-law, Jim Rice, 77. Jaci has Parkinson's disease and Jim is experiencing macular degeneration.

Monroe House Administrator Linda Edwards has worked at the facility for nearly 12 years and said she's never seen a mother, daughter and son-in-law reside there at the same time.

As people continue to live into their 90s, she expects a trend to develop, with different generations living together in retirement facilities.

"It's really rare," she said. "I've never seen it before but it's interesting. Adult kids will say (jokingly) 'you should have a second floor for us, it's a great place to live.'"

The Monroe House is a retirement center that residents make monthly payments on, like they would for a cruise, Edwards said.

Although retirement living can be a lot of fun, people aren't moving in because of the fun of it, she commented.

Retirement facilities are options for adult children with a diagnosis preventing them from traveling. Now Jaci Rice doesn't have to drive 20 miles to see her mom.

It can be an impossible task if Jaci Rice is having a difficult day with her Parkinson's disease. It was the reason they moved into the Monroe House, Jim Rice said.

"It was definitely good for both of them," Edwards said. "She knows it's nice to remain the daughter and not take the role of caregiver."

For the Heist and Rice families, living at the Monroe House worked well for them, Edwards said.

She looks at different generations retiring together as a wave of the future.

The facility tries to offer a wide enough care range to provide services for adult children and their parents.

"One of the big deciding factors was knowing we could care for their mom," Edwards said of the Rices. "For the daughter, it was a necessity. For the mom, it was a blessing."

The Heist and Rice families lived in the Yakima area before moving to Moses Lake in June.

Heist previously lived in an adult family home with five other women.

"We found this place and they said they would be glad to take us here," Jim Rice recalled.

Another bonus was having two of their children living in Moses Lake.

"You go where most of your kids are," Jaci Rice said.

She characterized living in the same facility with her mom as "a lot of work in a lot of ways," like when she's having a bad day accompanied by mini-strokes.

Staff is there to step in and provide Heist's care, but Jaci Rice is the only child living in town to see her mom's condition on a daily basis. Her brothers live out of state.

There are days when Marie knows her family and other days when she thinks they are her care providers, Jaci Rice said.

But living together means they can see one another more often and dine together.

"These places aren't cheap, but a necessity we need in our life because we're living longer," Jaci commented.

She called retirement homes "a wave of the future" and noted the need for more of the facilities.

The Monroe House is one-level facility in Moses Lake, with 39 residents living in 36 apartments.