Correction: Due to an error in reporting, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated the facility will be closing. The registered assisted living portion is closing. RTV6 regrets the error.
NDIANAPOLIS — Packing up and moving is something many of us dread at any age. But at 99, Vera Nuckols is being forced to leave her home and, surprisingly, she is OK with it.
Nuckols has called the Crestwood Village East senior community home for the past 13 years.
"This apartment became vacant. My husband was so excited about it, and he came down here two or three times a day to see how much work they had finished on it, so we could move in," Nuckols said.
When Nuckols and her late husband moved into the senior community, they were looking for a facility that could take care of her during her treatments for skin cancer.
The facility is going through changes after Justus Senior Living Communities announced plans to sell both Crestwood Village East and West and close the registered assisted living portion of the facility leaving 104 employees without jobs and forcing 100 residents to find a new place to live.
Justus Senior Living said it is working with current employees to help them find jobs either elsewhere in the company or possibly with the new buyers of the current properties.
"Well, it's been great," Nuckols said. "I've made a lot of friends here, and I do a lot of things here, but I get out more often than most of them. Now we have people that live in here, that are here everyday, all day. Some of them don't have anybody to come and see them, some of them don't have any outside friends and so it's difficult."
Nuckols is not slowing down and, for the most part, takes care of herself. The family that loves her is just a call away, and that piece of mind is not lost on her grandson, Andrew House, who worries for the other residents who may not only have to find a new home but a group of people to care about them.
"My concern is less for my own grandmother and more for some of the other people here," House said. "I think some of the people here still don't know what they are going to do and 60 days is not a lot of time to move for anybody, especially someone who's retired on a fixed income or what have you."
Thanks to the quick action of her family, Nuckols already has a new place to live at Crestwood's sister facility in New Palestine. As the east and west side facilities close their doors, residents are being assisted with relocation and placement services and a $1,000 moving credit and public forums for residents and family members.
As the former Army sergeant gets ready to move out once again, a near-century-long life has taught her it's OK to start over.
"That's right. Just turn over a new life," Nuckols said. "You can moan and groan but why bother? It is what it is and you can't change it."
