Jim and Jane Cottrell of Sun City, did not know during the first half of their lives they were destined to be together.
Jane went to school and started her nursing career in eastern Pennsylvania working as a traveling nurse in New York City, Chicago, and Cleveland before heading to Austin, Texas.
Jim grew up in Austin obtaining his degree in marketing at Texas A & M, where he promoted companies specializing in environmentally safe products.
Jim and Jane crossed paths, got married and headed to Phoenix nearly 18 years ago. But as they started looking at options for staying healthy as they aged, both avid animal lovers, started to wonder what would happen to their fur baby Cleo if they moved to assisted living? That’s when a postcard from Sun Health at Home came in the mail and their questions, answered.
Sun Health At Home (SHAH) is a nonprofit “continuing care at home” program. SHAH specializes in personalized support and coordinated services to help members successfully age in place at home.
“We got to thinking about this and it was an answer to our prayers. We want to stay in our home, our dog has an area. We love our home; we entertain and didn’t want to downsize…we have the security of someone looking out for us and help should we need it.”
And they add, it was the best decision they could have made with the unexpected nature of what can happen in life.
“Right after we joined, a couple of months later my wife had emergency appendix and gall bladder surgery,” Jim shared. “I called the number to share what happened and the next day we received a call asking us what we needed for meals, what they could do to help. I was so impressed.”
Jim offers the following advice for anyone considering the services SHAH offers.
“I read that every 40 seconds someone has a stroke. People buy insurance for their car, life insurance, but without health insurance, you can be burdensome to family. There is comfort knowing professionals who will look over us” Jim shares.
And the Cottrell’s feel good knowing that Cleo, their treasured Labradoodle, doesn’t have to go anywhere either.
To learn more about SHAH please, visit SunHealthAtHome.org or call (623) 227-4663 (West Valley) or (480) 336-4663 (Phoenix or Scottsdale).
