Senior Living Apartments in Marengo, IL

I helped my mom move here this year, and she loves this place. The apartment and building are beautiful and modern, with amazing facilities for family gatherings. The office manager, [Removed], helped us navigate the application process with humor and kindness. The building manager,[Removed], is also kind and helpful, and quickly addressed any questions. It's a quiet and affordable living option for my mom, and it's close to stores, banking and shopping. I would love living here myself someday!

The single most important matter for my mother has been this: Charter saved her life. Any other issues, such as the quality of the food or the activities, pales in comparison. In early [date removed], it looked like my mother was doomed to living out her days in a nursing home. At first, Charter (then called Cedarhurst), rejected her. A week later, on re-evaluation, they accepted her. Over a period of months, my mother has gone from needing a high level of care to fair amount of independence. She can get around her apartment in a walker, and her life is unmeasurably better than it would have been under any alternative circumstance. All the credit goes to an excellent, friendly, and caring staff. All that said, Charter (when it was Cedarhurst) was quite obviously going through a large number of administrative issues. Things have gotten better in this regard with the new management company. However, the communication back to me from a couple of key people has not been what it should be. The food is fine as institutional food goes. I wonder why institutional food cannot be better. Activities are fine but they don't fit with my mother as well. She would benefit from concerts, presentations on artistic subjects, and things like that.

This review is for the dementia side of Heritage Woods- I feel like they need more staff and they need to talk to each other more about the residents. I was there all the time so I made sure my moms needs where taken care of. But if I had questions about my mom some staff had no answers so I felt like I had to talk to everyone to find out information. Overall it was a okay place for my mom but you need to stay involved with the care.