Mediate Michigan

Faced with the usual options for senior housing and elder care, some older adults are inventing their own grassroots versions — do-it-yourself senior living that’s friendlier, more autonomous and less expensive. In the coming weeks, fellows in the News21 program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism will offer video reports on four of these: a shared housing arrangement in White Plains, a senior co-housing development in Virginia, an urban village in Chicago and an R.V. community in East Texas.

Recently, in the early hours of the morning, Anna Novak, 81, got up to use the bathroom in her home in White Plains. She fell, hitting her head and left arm against the bathtub.

“Antimina!” she called.

Antimina Garmley, a 65-year-old retired nurse who has lived with Mrs. Novak since July 2010, awoke in the next room. She jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom. Kevin Novak, getting ready for work, also heard his mother’s calls and hurried across the hall.

via My House, Our Home – NYTimes.com.