At 48, Linda Sill feels like a teenager again.

The massage therapist, who runs her own business out of her home in North Fayette, lives with her 72-year-old mother. Alma, who had her hip replaced years ago, and Linda, who worried about her mother falling, cosigned on the house together more than five years ago. For the most part, the situation has worked out well, with the women taking turns cooking dinner and devising an appropriate payment system for bills.

“She pays the mortgage and I pay most of the utilities,” Alma says. But for the adult living with a parent again, it also can lead to teenage-like wails of “Mooooom, really!”

Sometimes, Linda notes, privacy at the house is difficult to come by. Plus, she says, her mother can’t help but give instruction and advice, despite the fact that her daughter is an adult, not to mention a mother herself. “When she first moved in, I was doing laundry and she started instructing me on how to use the washer and dryer,” Linda recalls with humor. “I said, ‘Mom, did you forget what year I was born in.’”

Still, Linda has never regretted the decision to have her mother live with her. “I’d rather have her here with me than living in a place by herself. Because of her handicap, she has difficulty getting around,” Linda says. “This way, someone is here all the time. If she does fall, I’m here. I feel much better knowing someone is close to her.”

While cohabitation may have been right for the Sills, for thousands of other seniors in the South Hills -- where 17.1 percent of the population is aged 65 and over -- a variety of choices is available. Providence Point in Scott Township, which is set to open its doors in the fall, is one such option.

Sponsored by Baptist Homes Society Inc., a Christian nonprofit specializing in senior living, the community is a rather novel concept for Pittsburgh (although popular in a Florida retirement setting), encompassing everything a retired person could want, and probably more. The community, specifically built for those over 62, is a 36-acre complex featuring a mixture of patio homes, apartments, a recreational facility, healthcare center and a program called “LifeCare.”

The LifeCare program gives community members access to a 24-hour nursing staff, transportation services for physician visits. Each patio home and apartment also is outfitted with an urgent call system and the campus offers an assisted living setting and private, assisted living apartments for those who require more care. “We have a holistic approach to health,” says Eileen Moore, marketing director for Providence Point, “Not only are there beautiful rooms and dining rooms, we also have a wellness center, an indoor fitness center and an exercise physiologist on staff who can help residents evaluate their goals and what they want to
accomplish.”

Moore says studies undertaken by Duke University have shown the life expectancy of seniors extends by seven years when they are living in a happy community setting, making friends among their peers and untroubled by worries about getting to their next doctor appointment.

The 36 patio homes are set to open this fall, Moore says, and the 216 apartment residences will be open by spring. She estimates that, already, 70 percent of residences are reserved. “What we hear the most from the residents who made reservations is that they want to make the decisions for themselves; where they live and where they get care,” Moore says. “A lot of them have families, and they say, ‘I don’t want to burden my children with making those decisions.’”

Avoiding being a burden to their children also is what makes some seniors seek out in-home services, such as Right at Home Care of Pittsburgh and Caring Mission Home Care which allow patients to receive treatments at home that they would normally receive at a personal care facility.

Most of these providers combine housekeeping, laundry, meals and companionship.

Such communities also offer recreation centers where seniors gather to meet friends or play cards. Alma Sill frequents the recreation center in Cecil, where she eats lunch and plays Bingo twice a week. “I never thought I’d do that,” she says with a laugh. “I never thought I’d be old enough to sit around and play bingo.”