For more than 30 years, Brentwood Health Care Center has provided quality senior care. Whether you or a family member needs rehabilitation, memory care, assisted living or skilled nursing services, we make sure you have everything you need to enjoy daily life, including chef-prepared meals and engaging activities.
Let’s take a peek into a day in the life of one of our assisted living residents, featuring many of our senior living activities and senior living events.
Morning at Brentwood
6 a.m. – Barbara wakes up and takes a shower in the fully accessible bathroom of her assisted living apartment. No sense in styling her hair this morning since she’s getting it cut in an hour.
Barbara — yes, you may call her Barb — makes her way out to the furnished kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee. Once that’s ready, she takes a seat on her sofa and watches the birds outside the window while she enjoys her coffee.
7:30 a.m. – Barb makes her way to the salon at Brentwood. She gives the stylist very specific instructions on how she’d like her hair cut. After a quick back and forth, the cut is underway. The stylist curls the ends of the bob and sets it with hairspray.
9 a.m. – Freshly coiffed, Barbara heads to breakfast. On the menu: blueberry pancakes and sugar-free syrup, a bowl of Greek yogurt with a scoop of homemade granola and — of course— more coffee, but this time decaf.
9:30 a.m. – Josephine spots her friend at breakfast and encourages Barb to join her in the garden room. Surrounded by natural sunlight and fresh blooms, the ladies discuss the last group fitness session. They were not sure they would like chair yoga, but after trying it, they might do it more regularly.
They also get into a mild debate about the upcoming sewing circle — one of their favorite senior living activities. Barb can’t decide if she should make a few blue or pink bibs for her great niece who’s expecting her first child. Josephine feels she should do yellow or green since she doesn’t yet know the baby’s gender. The ladies finally settle on deciding in the moment with whatever fabric speaks to Barbara.
10:30 a.m. – Barb is relaxing in her room with a crossword puzzle when there’s a knock at the door. A man from maintenance is there to rehang a picture frame that was accidentally knocked down a couple days ago.
Another knock at the door. This time it’s someone dropping off Barbara’s weekly laundry service. She’s happy to have clean and folded clothes at the ready.
Afternoon at Brentwood
11 a.m. – Barb heads to the pub at Brentwood for lunch. She enjoys a BLT with extra crispy bacon, freshly cut oven-baked chips and unsweetened iced tea. She eyes a chocolate chip cookie … then snags it, wraps it up in a napkin, and places it into the pocket of her sweater for later.
12:30 p.m. – Time for an hour of physical therapy. Last winter, Barb broke her collar bone when she fell on some ice at the local shops. After the bone healed, she still experienced some weakened muscles. So, one of Brentwood’s physical therapists created a personalized plan to help her regain full use of her arm.
Some days they work with weights, balls and even our state-of-the-art rehabilitation equipment. But today they’re utilizing the full kitchen in the rehab space to ensure Barb is properly working both arms to do her everyday tasks without overcompensating with the non-broken side.
1:30 p.m. – Nap time.
2:30 p.m. – Feeling reenergized, Barb decides to check out this month’s senior art class. The in-house activities instructor is doing a watercolor tutorial, and Barb decides to claim a canvas. She created oil paintings for a few decades, but never really dabbled in watercolors.
After they all get used to the feel of the paint, the class moves on to creating a Georgia O’Keefe-inspired landscape. The instructor walks them through step by step, and once their masterpieces are complete, he lets everyone have a turn with the hairdryer to ensure their paintings are dry.
4:45 p.m. – Barb’s daughter and two grandchildren visit her in her room before dinner. She shows them her new painting, and her grandson shares that he recently learned about Georgia O’Keefe in art class.
While the two are discussing various types of paint, Barb’s granddaughter spots the cookie from lunch on the kitchen island. She asks if she can eat it. As her mom says it will ruin her dinner, Barb suggests her granddaughter split it with her brother. The women share a glance, then her daughter relents, breaking the chocolate chip cookie in half and handing a piece to each kid.
Evening at Brentwood
5 p.m. – Barbara and her family head to the dining room. The kids love the restaurant-style lasagna that’s cooked-to-order by our chef, so they made sure to visit grandma on this day. Barb’s friends say hello as they pass by. The kids ask everyone if they too painted a landscape today.
Before Barb’s daughter and grandchildren leave, she tells them they must come back in a couple weeks for the ice cream social. Her granddaughter says she will if there are rainbow sprinkles. Barb gives her a wink and assures her the sprinkles will be there.
7 p.m. – A local piano player sets up his electric keyboard for a night of classical music and a few more modern songs with a classical twist. Barbara joins for about 30 minutes, until she spots Josephine. The two grab their pals Ray and Edgar, along with a couple decks of cards, and sit at a table on the outskirts of the concert.
They play a round of Pinochle and a few hands of Rummy. This weekly game results in the overall winner taking home the traveling prize: a small wooden plaque that says “Life Happens. Wine helps.” Someone picked it up on one of Brentwood’s trips to Amish Country a few years ago. Who was it? No one can remember, but it’s become a running gag among the friends.
9 p.m. – Barb heads back to her room to settle in for the night. (Edgar got to take home the plaque this week.)
After changing into her pajamas, she must decide between one of two nightly routines: scroll through Facebook posts to see what her family has been up to or read the latest romance novel she checked out on the last organized trip to the library.
Tonight, she selects her book and crawls into bed. It’s been an eventful day, so if she falls asleep reading she can start again in the morning.
10 p.m. – Barb falls asleep and dreams of winning that goofy little plaque next week.
Experience Brentwood in Person
This based-on-a-true-story day at Brentwood was just a peek into what happens here. Instead of heavily relying on your imagination, join us for a tour! Experience our facilities in person, meet some of the residents and enjoy a delicious lunch.
Schedule a tour of our senior living community and skilled nursing facility today.
