Two months after moving in, Francene Vincent has become something of an unofficial ambassador at The Clare.
“One, two, three neighbors have come and looked at my apartment,” she laughs, describing the informal tours she’s taken to giving fellow residents curious about the community. “You would think I was one of the salespeople.” She walks them through the mail room, up to the 19th floor, retracing the same path her own mentor once showed her. All three of those neighbors, she says, are now seriously considering the move themselves.
From Francene’s enthusiasm, it’s clear she settled in fast, having just moved into The Clare in June. But her confidence in The Clare was tested early, in a moment that had nothing to do with activities or amenities and everything to do with feeling truly cared for.
Only two weeks after moving in, Francene nearly passed out in the lobby. “They called The Clare’s EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians), who were right in the building since they’re 24/7 employees of the community,” she recalls. “The Clare’s EMTs called Northwestern Hospital, and they took me over there.” What happened next told her everything she needed to know about the decision she’d just made. “As soon as they mentioned that I was coming from the Clare, the nurses at Northwestern took me back in right away.” The Clare’s care team had called ahead. The next day, The Clare’s Nurse Navigator personally checked in to see how she was feeling, and gave her a keychain card with the community’s number, just in case. “That was one of the things that made me feel welcome and secure,” Francene says.
It’s a fitting introduction to life at The Clare for a woman who spent 34 years caring for a townhome in Chicago’s South Loop and, before that, 38 years building a career in human
resources at the U.S. Postal Service. Francene is used to taking care of business. Now, for the first time in decades, she has help doing it.
A Decision Nine Years in the Making
Francene isn’t new to Chicago, and she wasn’t new to The Clare, either – not really. She spent nearly a decade researching Life Plan Communities before making her move this past June, comparing The Clare against other options along the way. “Every time, The Clare came out as being number one,” she says.
Once she was ready, the process moved quickly. Her time on the waiting list only lasted a few months, and her advisor, Cathy, went out of her way to make the transition personal. Cathy even visited Francene’s home to help her figure out which floor plan would have enough wall space for her artwork, and when Francene worried about fitting her furniture into a new apartment, Cathy offered a solution: bring only her bedroom set, and The Clare would loan the rest until new pieces could be chosen. “Cathy went way out to help me with what I wanted,” Francene says.
Looking back, Francene’s only regret is the timing of her own decision, not the decision itself. “I wish I would have moved sooner,” she admits. “I could have taken all of this off my plate years ago.”
Trading Upkeep for Ease
For three decades, Francene’s days involved shoveling snow, climbing stairs, and hunting down reliable contractors to keep her townhome in shape. At The Clare, that entire category of worry has simply disappeared. “Freedom of no maintenance,” is how she sums it up.
Even the small conveniences have made an outsized difference. Francene can now approve maintenance requests to enter her apartment while she’s out, sparing her the all-day waiting windows she once dreaded. “I don’t want to sit around like I had to do when I owned the townhouse… your whole day is wasted,” she says. “This way, I can go, and they can come in and do what they want to do.” A notice is left behind so she always knows what was done. That shift – from managing a household to simply living in one – has freed up something Francene didn’t expect: her attention.
A Social Calendar That Filled Up Fast
Francene has never been one to sit still. “I don’t like periods where I’m sitting for a long time,” she says. It’s a habit that’s carried straight through her move. Within her first two months at The Clare, she’d already joined a knitting group, a mystery book club, a beading class, and exercise sessions twice a week with Kim, The Clare’s Fitness Manager, all while keeping up her daily two-hour walk, a routine she maintained for years in her old neighborhood.
Along the way, Francene has been struck by just how active her fellow residents are. She’s encountered several residents well into their 90’s, including a lovely 96-year-old resident who she sits next to in the knitting group. Others have called The Clare home since 2008 and 2009. “And they think it’s the lifestyle,” Francene says of their longevity and vitality – a connection she’s come to believe in herself.
Finding Community as a Solo Ager
Francene moved to The Clare on her own, without a spouse or children nearby. This solo-aging path is shared by a growing number of residents who’ve spent their lives building independent careers and social circles in Chicago. For Francene, that independence never wavered. What changed is the sense of a safety net underneath it.
“Right now, I really feel, you know, I don’t have to worry about anything,” she says. “You really do feel that you’re part of a community.” That sense of security extends to the everyday, even the little things. When Francene struggled to set up her television service, the concierge downstairs spent half an hour on the phone walking her through it. “You don’t know how much I appreciated that,” she says.
A Downtown Life, Uninterrupted
Before her move, Francene held subscriptions to the opera house and stayed busy tending her own small yard, cooking, cleaning, and keeping the same early-riser routine she’d followed since her working days. “I still get up at 5 o’clock in the morning,” she says. “I’m a person that needs a routine.”
Rather than stifling that drive to be active, she’s simply found a new outlet in The Clare’s regular musical performances, her growing roster of resident groups, and a lifestyle built around staying engaged. “That’s why the activities are very important to me,” she says. Francene’s appetite for an active, connected life downtown has only become easier to satiate.
Dining Worth Talking About
Ask Francene about the food at The Clare, and she lights up. She’s become something of a fish connoisseur since June, sampling varieties she’d never encountered before. “It’s fish that I’ve never heard of,” she says. “I always have to go on the internet to find out what it is, and I’ve loved all of it!”
After being diagnosed with celiac disease earlier this year, Francene brought documentation from her dietitian to The Clare’s dining team. Within weeks, the menus had been updated to clearly flag gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian options, along with simple substitutions that let her order what she wanted at no extra cost. “They really do push to accommodate you if you have a special diet,” she says. “And I can say that they did more than accommodate me.”
Looking Ahead
Two months in, Francene shows no signs of slowing down. She’s eager to keep learning, keep moving, and keep saying yes to whatever comes next. “I might be slow,” she jokes, “but I want to be active.”
For a woman who spent 38 years working with people and describes herself as “a people person,” The Clare has turned out to be exactly the kind of community she was looking for – one where the day-to-day worries have quietly fallen away, making room for everything else.
