A more realistic title would be “when”, not “if”. It doesn't take much, especially if you're over 65: a broken bone, a joint replacement, failing eyesight, a stroke or heart attack, dementia. If you have a partner, and rely on the partner for transport, the same problems apply.

My mother, born in 1906, spent over 90 years living in England without ever learning to drive. There are a few cities in the US where that's possible – New York, Chicago, San Francisco, for instance – but in most of the country you need a car. There was a grocery store “near” the house I lived in before moving to a Continuing Care Retirement Community, but it would have been a three mile round trip to the other side of a major four lane road. No-one wants to do that, pushing a shopping cart and a cooler, during a North Carolina summer, with temps and humidity consistently in the nineties. Nothing else I might need was even that close.

Consider two of my friends. One, let's call her C, is my next-door neighbor at the CCRC. After she had joint-replacement surgery she came back to the Skilled Nursing facility, and then to her apartment. Meals were delivered, and her on-site physical therapist took her down for treatments in a wheelchair. The CCRC also provides transport to off-site medical appointments.

Then there is my friend M, still aging in place. When she had joint-replacement surgery she constructed a massive spreadsheet to track all of the people coming to look after her, provide physical therapy, and take her to appointments. That's a lot of effort, with plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong.

Which would you rather be?

(BTW, M is moving to a facility with Independent and Assisted Living in January.)

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