Elders, college students thriving together in intergenerational residence
When you think of college roommates, you likely think of a couple of young adults making their way through school and fun. But there's a Twin Cities residence that's completely rethinking the concept of co-ed living, and it's turned into a life-giving project.
From the outside of The Pillars of Prospect Park Senior Living in Minneapolis, you may be able to guess what's on the inside; independent living for seniors and memory care, too.
But things here aren't as they may seem.
"Lily and I come once a week and rock the babies and talk to them and just are amazed at how they change from week to week, it's wonderful," said resident Carole Johnson.
"I just like being with little children," said resident Lilly Olson. "I've got three great-grandsons out in Montana that I don't see very often."
Around The Pillars, there's about a 100-year age span, and some University of Minnesota students in occupational therapy are somewhere in between.
"I think it's a really cool concept. The whole intergenerational piece is something I wasn't familiar with until coming here to Pillars," said student
Just a stones throw from campus, they are using each other to learn.
"It definitely gives you the ability to see life as this, this holistic thing,"
So as students observe, residents rock and friendships are formed in the spaces in between.
"I don't think I would have survived in a residency that was only elderly people," said resident Sharon Toogood Froehle.
She wants the peers and the babies at the in-house daycare.
"And so every morning, once we're having our coffee, we get to watch these parents come with their little toddlers, you know, or infants, and they're taking them over," Toogood Froehle said.
She also gets to enjoy the students who are also neighbors, like psychology PHD candidate Jake Schachter.
"People find it interesting when I tell them I live in a retirement home, it's usually like, what I start with, and they're like, 'What?' And I'm like, 'It's an intergenerational community. I live with assisted and independent living, and I have my own apartment,' and people think it's interesting," Schachter said.
He's also getting life lessons, too.
"There's a lot of wisdom from people who have lived experience, so I learn a lot from them. And I mean, they've been through like history," he said.
Toogood Froehle has a history of pain and love. She lost both of her parents as a child, and grew up in a boarding school. She became a nurse and a mom, and just a few years ago, she and her wife Marsha decided the next chapter in their story would be at The Pillars.
"Marsha had had four falls at her home in St. Joseph and our children were getting concerned, and so we decided that it would be a good idea to move into a residence where we could have assisted care if we needed it," she said.
It turned out to be just what they needed.
"It's been renewing. And actually, we were at a meeting with the students maybe a couple months ago, and they were going around and asking people to share their story and so I shared my story about my parents dying," Toogood Froehle said. "I think it's, you know, it's OK to share those stories. It's OK for people to know that you've had some hard times, but you can find a way to go above that. So it's been a good place for me.
The same goes for her friend and fellow resident, Schachter.
"Everyone here has like a pretty good sense of humor, and I feel like that's something that seems to like really be related to well-being, like living a good life. So that's been interesting to me," Schachter said.
Aside from the knowledge, he appreciates the vibe.
"It's quiet. Most people go to bed pretty early," Schachter said.
And so together, they live in peace and harmony.