My maternal grandmother Mary Helen Sultan moved to Vicksburg from the Delta a few years after my grandfather died.

She was not exactly excited about leaving the town where she had friends and a church family, but she did realize with the help of my mother and aunt, that it would be better if she lived closer to one of them.

My aunt lives in San Antonio, so staying in Mississippi was a better option, and when her house sold, she moved to Vicksburg.

My grandmother has always been a very independent kind of woman — my mom and my aunt may say she was too independent — so when she moved to Vicksburg, she set up house in one of my dad’s two-bedroom apartments.

Mary Helen (none of us grands, as she called us, dared to refer to her as memaw or granny — she was always just Mary Helen) lived in that apartment for many years up until her dementia would not allow.

At this point she once again had to be uprooted from all she knew, and my mom and aunt moved her to Heritage House’s assisted living facility on Wisconsin Avenue. It was as good a set up as you could get: close to family and still with a bit of autonomy — each assisted living unit had its own living space, bathroom and bedroom. Because of Mary Helen’s dementia, her children did have to provide round-the-clock sitters for her, and in doing so many became like family.

Unfortunately, as my grandmother’s dementia progressed, it was obvious that she needed even more than an assisted living facility could provide, even with round-the-clock sitters. Therefore, she once again had to be moved. This time it was to San Antonio into a memory care facility that specialized in taking care of people with either dementia or Alzheimer’s.

It was hard when my grandmother moved. No longer could I just pop in to say “Hi” and give her a hug. Sure, I visited her in San Antonio, but only once before she died.

Having my grandmother close by all those years was a gift and when I learned Heritage House’s assisted living facility was closing, I grieved for all those living there and their families, especially for Hugh Green and his family, who are practically like family to us.

It is traumatic when older people must be moved and traumatic for the families that are weighed down with trying to find a loving facility. And in the case of Heritage House where short notice was given during the backdrop of the holidays,, it made it that much more distressing.

Fortunately, Hugh has found a place to move, but it is not in Vicksburg, which is an even bigger shame.

As a retirement community, I am struggling to understand why we only had one assisted living facility and now have none.

So, I would like to challenge those in the community who have access to courting new businesses and ask that they consider reaching out to entities interested in opening assisted living facilities.

I would imagine that with more than 70 million baby boomers in the U.S., assisted living facilities are a booming business and what better fit than to have some right here in a retirement community?

So again, I would ask our mayor and chamber of commerce leaders to search out companies in the assisted living business and pitch the notion of opening one in Vicksburg, so that when folks in our retirement community need to transition into the next stage of their life, they won’t have to leave.

Terri Cowart Frazier writes features for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.