Magnolia Manor Blog

Whether you’re actively independent or not quite as active as you once were, no one wants to sit around all day doing nothing. We all need stimulation to keep our minds, bodies, and spirits strong. Senior living fosters a sense of community and – here at Magnolia Manor, at least – provides a wealth of opportunities to exercise and socialize.

A Medicare premium reduction? With prices rising on virtually everything, you might think you misread that. However, the Medicare Part B premium really will be lower in 2023. That’s great news for more than 56 million seniors. But why, in a world of inflation, are we getting this price break?

Drug Pricing . . . but Not What You Think

The bears have it – for now, anyway. Any time the stock market becomes unusually volatile or takes a definite downturn, investors wonder if they should take action or just wait it out. This question affects seniors, especially, because the older you get the less opportunity you have to take a long-term approach to investments.

You may need that money soon to help pay for your retirement. Meanwhile, high inflation and talk of a possible recession also affect financial planning as well as daily living.

Here are some tips to weather this bear market.

Can you work and receive Social Security retirement benefits at the same time? Yes. Should you? Well, that depends. It’s important to understand that the issue isn’t only whether working will affect your benefit, but when you start receiving your benefits.

Retirement Benefits: There’s a Carrot, and There’s a Stick

If you still think of 65 as “retirement age,” think again. Due to very real concerns about future funding for the program and the fact that lots of Baby Boomers are retiring now, the SSA wants you to wait longer to start drawing benefits.

Welcome to Magnolia Manor in Columbus, Georgia! As our website says, we’re on “the banks of the Chattahoochee, where the Piedmont meets the Plain.” Sounds inviting, doesn’t it? And it is. While some of the nine Magnolia Manor campuses are quite large, we are a small community here in Columbus. Just 44 assisted living apartments plus two skilled nursing wings.

So, what is it like living and working here?

At Magnolia Manor, we are blessed to have so many truly wonderful staff members. They are as much a part of our family as our residents. Usually, the only people who get to know them are their colleagues and the residents they serve within a particular Magnolia Manor campus. So when we have an opportunity to highlight a staff member here in our blog so everyone can meet them, we always say yes.

Meet Bridget Smith

If you reside in Assisted Living at Magnolia Manor Columbus, you already know Bridget. She’s the dietary maven – the woman responsible for ensuring residents get three scrumptious, nutritious meals each day.

One of the best things about senior living communities is that you get to meet so many new and interesting people. Whether you move to Magnolia Manor as a resident, or you work here, or even if you’re a visiting family member or friend, you immediately realize you are surrounded by unique life stories.

And who doesn’t love a good story? That’s why we always highlight residents in our quarterly Manor Living magazine. And from time to time, we like to introduce residents to our blog readers as well. So let’s meet Lucile Garrison.

Things may not be back to normal yet – whatever “normal” may turn out to be – but here at Magnolia Manor our staff and residents are so happy to see the return of in-person events. Virtual get-togethers simply do not rise to the occasion like the opportunity to see, hear, and hug one another up close and personally.

So, you can be sure we are doing all we can to reconvene for activities small and large. Many of these activities center around our own campuses and residents, of course. But some also serve to reinforce the close relationships we enjoy with our surrounding communities. Here are two recent examples.

Did we celebrate Mother’s day at Magnolia Manor? You’re darn right we did! Where would we be without our moms? Within our Magnolia Manor family at each of our campuses, we have mothers of all ages. Not only residents, many of whom are grandmas or great-grandmothers, but staff who are moms. We even have a couple of mother-daughter teams among our staff.

So, when we celebrate Mother’s Day, we go all out.

What did your mom always say when you were a kid? “Go outside and get some fresh air!”

You may not be a kid anymore, but your mother’s advice still pertains. In fact, it’s even more important for seniors to get outside to enjoy the tangible and intangible benefits. Quite simply, sunshine and fresh air refuel the body, mind, and spirit – the fundamentals of life, as we see it here at Magnolia Manor.