The cost of senior care: Why aging farmers fear the nursing home
RUGBY, N.D. — Cindie Haakenson was relieved when a room opened up at the Heart of America long-term care center this past spring.
Her 74-year-old husband, Sherwood, had been suffering from multiple fainting episodes in recent months due to issues with his heart and kidney. Finally, he could receive the 24-hour supervision he desperately needed.
“We’ve got enough tucked away to keep him for about a year. After that, I’m not sure,” Cindie said. “We’ve got farmland that we own we could sell, but it’s like giving away part of your legacy.”
The Haakensons own about 2,600 acres in North Dakota's Willow City area. Most of the small cattle and wheat farm has been in Sherwood’s family for over 130 years. It survived brutal winters and the farm crisis of the 1980s. Now, the couple confronted a situation many aging family farmers fear: being forced to sell or break up the farm to pay for long-term care.
It was a gut-wrenching position to be in, but woefully familiar. Years earlier, Cindie watched as her parents’ health issues nearly cost them their farm.
