Seniors find a friendly home at Rogers City’s Hilltop Manor

by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor

Sally Goupell, executive director of Hilltop Manor in Rogers City, is a bit puzzled about recent comments from potential occupants for the HUD-funded apartment complex along West Erie While some people are understandably apprehensive about change and don?t want to move from the place they?ve known as their home for decades, others believe Hilltop is some type of nursing home.

?I?ve shown a few people some apartments, and one lady made the comment that ?she is still in her right mind? and she wasn?t ready to live there yet,? said Goupell. ?I said, ?that?s good, because the only kind of people who live here are in their right mind.? I think people have a misconception. Some people believe that we are a nursing home. They don?t understand we are independent living.? Goupell can produce a long list of converts who originally didn?t want to move into the facility but later didn?t want to move back.

ESTHER SCHAEDIG, who has a farm in Moltke Township, reluctantly explored the Hilltop option a year ago when she sat across the desk from Goupell. ?We were doing all the paperwork,? said Goupell, ?and (Esther) said, ?I have a farm in Moltke, so I?ll be spending most of my time there, and I?ll be back and forth to my apartment.?

Goupell told her that would be fine and she didn?t have to give an account of when she would be in her apartment. ?It was kind of funny, because I think within a space of two weeks, she never went to the farm unless she had to,? said Goupell. ?After a month here, she just loved it.? Schaedig said, ?This winter, I am so glad I was here. I didn?t have to worry about snow. My son tells me there is nothing but ice at the farmhouse.? As is the case with many Hilltop residents, they count their blessings, and usually return them many times over. Since moving in, Schaedig has offered to run errands, takes residents to doctor?s appointments, and checks on others when they are not feeling well. ?She has a very big heart, she?s a sweetheart,? said Goupell. ?We wouldn?t let her move back to the farm now.?

HELEN KOWALEWSKY has lived at Hilltop for 14 years and said, ?It is the best place I could have ever moved to. If you need some help, just ask your neighbor and they are willing to help you. We are one happy family, and I?m very glad I live here.? Goupell?s first experience at Hilltop took place in the 1990s, when, after three years she convinced her mother, Jeanette LaLonde, to move from her home of 60 years to Hilltop.

?She couldn?t imagine living away from there,? said Goupell. Jeannette was diagnosed with depression and her doctor recommended she move in to have the company of her peers as well as a secure atmosphere. She became angry with her family, but Sally said they made a promise that if she didn?t like it after six months they would move her back home. Three years later, LaLonde was diagnosed with cancer. Sally remembers sitting on her hospital bed and offering to bring her to their house for care, but she wanted to return to Hilltop because she said they were all like family. ?That is the greatest testimony in the world,? said Goupell.

HILLTOP, WHICH was established in 1972, offers rent based on 30 percent of net income. The rent that can be charged can range from $50 to $560. It includes all utilities. Cable TV is an extra charge but at a great rate. ?A lot of people are under the impression that they can?t have any money,? said Goupell. ?That?s not true. You can have $100,000 sitting in the bank and a very small percentage of that is figured into the final equation. There are limitations on the income you are allowed to have. In all the people I?ve interviewed, there have only been two people that have had incomes too high to qualif

y.? There are three apartments currently available and eight people on the waiting list, but many are waiting for their homes to sell in a weak market. Along with a list of people who could give their own testimony about what they like about the complex, Sally has one final pitch.

?It is the ideal situation, because you can have your own home within the security of a place where there are other people if you need them,? she said. ?This winter has been hard on a lot of people because of being shut in with the snow and ice, but it hasn?t been hard on us. There is lots of laughter and friendship here at Hilltop.

?Our residents have the company and support of one another. My heart breaks when I think of all of the elderly people in this community who live alone when they could be living among others who share the same interests and life experiences. Perhaps this article will cause them to pick up the phone and call or, better yet, make the trip up to the Manor and check us out. We?d love to have that happen.?