Paper Short Abstract:

I explore how residents of a private retirement home in Edmonton, Canada, prepare for the afterlife of the institution in which they live. As residents fear the seemingly inevitable closure of the place they call home, how do they make sense of an unplanned future?

Paper Abstract:

In this presentation, I explore how residents of a private retirement home prepare for the anticipated afterlife of the institution in which they live. The Churchill retirement home, in Edmonton, Canada, is owned by a multinational real estate company and managed by a third-party care provider. Recently, the home’s future has become uncertain. The contract with state-funded nursing services was discontinued leaving residents to navigate private home care options and signalling a new horizon in which the availability of care services is insufficient. Thus, many who planned to ‘age in place’ here have been given no choice but to move out (some as old as 101 years old). Others plan to “stay to the bitter end,” if they can. The potential closing of a retirement home is an exceptional circumstance, and yet it is a consequence of a common situation in that care provision for Canada’s aging population is largely private. The plight of Churchill residents is an example of what can happen when housing security and care provision of the elderly is contingent on the monetary returns of an investment company. Amidst this moment of crisis, daily life continues for residents who remain. As residents fear and anticipate the seemingly inevitable closure of the place they call home, where and how do they find strength and hope? How do they make sense of this loss? At a time of life when they had hoped to ‘age in place,’ how do they make sense of an unplanned future?