For this assignment I chose to interview my Grandmother and asses her home. My Grandma Mary has lived in her house since my grandfather retired back in the late 80’s. My grandfather passed away in 2008 and since then she has lived on her own. Over the years many changes have been made to her house so that she could remain living there safely. It is very important to my grandmother to have her own home. Lately she has suffered many mini strokes and many people have tried to convince her to move into an assisted living situation or in with a relative. However, my grandmother has always been a very independent woman and refuses to move from her home. Even though my grandmother is 86 years old and her health is declining she is able to keep up with things around the house and acts like she is much younger. She has expressed to me that if she were to leave her home and live under someone else’s care that she would feel helpless and would most likely get depressed as a result. However, my grandmother because of her strokes is no longer able to operate a car because of the chance that she could have a stroke while driving. Therefore, in order for her to stay in her house she has to rely on the assistance of others to go places. This transition did not cause her too much stress however, and she has adapted to this change well. In addition to having people drive her places her children have employed a woman to come into my grandmother’s home to check up on her daily and to help her with thing that she may need. This service was hard for my grandmother to accept because he felt that it was not necessary. My aunt Kathy lives in the same gated community as my grandmother. She moved their when my grandparents first moved into their retirement home back in the 80’s, and has raised her family there. This is very nice for my grandmother because my aunt and uncle are around to help drive her to places like the store or the doctor’s office. My uncle Jim is an emergency room doctor so it is also nice for my grandmother to have constant contact with a doctor in case she is in need of medical attention. Over the years my grandmother has made many adaptations to her retirement home to make it a nice place to live in her old age. When my grandparents retired they moved into a one level home which makes it very easy for my grandmother to travel safely throughout the rooms. The only step that she comes into contact with is a small step from the garage into the house. To make this step safe she has installed a handrail that she can grip to ensure that she does not fall. Over the years carpet has been installed in every room except the kitchen to make the ground softer and safer in case of falls. In the kitchen my grandmother has a tile floor but it is heavily textured and does not get too slippery when it is wet. My grandmother has bad eyes so she made it a priority to have bright lighting throughout the house and especially in the kitchen. In addition to a sky light in her ceiling she has many lights over the counters and her kitchen island. She keeps her kitchen free of appliances and neatly stores them in the cupboards below. She does this so that she can be assured that there are no appliances plugged in, and comments that she likes to see her green marble countertops free of clutter. She just put these countertops in last year and really enjoys working on them. Because my grandmother has frequent miniature strokes my family thought that it was very important for her to be in constant reach of communication. Therefore, a phone has been placed in every room and can be reached from the floor. In the kitchen my grandmother has her main phone that has big numbers for dialing and a very loud speaker phone option. Another adaptation that my grandmother has made to her home recently was the seating in her living room. She says that a few years back she had couches that were very hard for her to get up from. Therefore, she