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Intentional Community

By Carol McLeod

I’m about to make a change in how I live. This is the fruition of an idea that's been discussed among a group of friends (who have early onset Parkinson’s) whenever we got together. All of us knew that someday we would need help as our P. D. progressed. I’ve come to the conclusion that for me the time is now.

We all threw in our ideas, hopes and fears and what grew from that was a plan for a new way of living. We call it a "Intentional Community".

At first we thought that would mean sharing a large house or buying a small apartment building and each couple or person having their own apartment. We considered buying a bed and breakfast and making our home. All kinds of living spaces were discussed throughout the process but none seemed right for us.

I live in the suburbs now, south of Cincinnati and on the edge of rural Kentucky. I began to think about how isolated I would be when I couldn’t drive anymore. Hell, I feel isolated now. Moving out of the ‘burbs’ and into the city was starting to seem like it might not be a bad idea. I knew I couldn't  live in Cincinnati though because it's so conservative.

Louisville is a moderately sized city with a rather different attitude. It’s about an hour and a half drive southwest from where I live now. It's southern, artsy, a foodie haven, eccentric, beautiful and its citizens seem to live in harmony. Best of all, it is chock full of affordable housing.

I finally made the decision and bought a house there. It’s a duplex in an old part of town which I will share with my daughter. Two other young onset Parkinson's advocates bought a house nearby. This is what our ‘intentional community’ is becoming. We'll be living in a community where we know our neighbors and can walk up the street to find anything we may need.

Others may join us eventually. This neighborhood has housing in every price range, rentals, condos, duplexes and single family homes. You can walk to drugstores, food stores, restaurants, cafes, book stores, music stores, vintage stores, antique shops and pubs. It is community.

It took me a long time to get here but it feels right.