5 elderly holdouts fighting closure of assisted-living home

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/5-elderly-holdouts-fighting-closure-assisted-living-home-160750681.html?nhp=1

NEW YORK (AP) — The stately dining room at this once-bustling old-age home has been emptied, its floors ripped up. The tiny general store's shelves are barren, and the exercise room has gone silent. No one is leafing through the books of the library or digging into a treat in the ice cream parlor or painting at an easel in the art room.

All that remains are five women, ages 91 to 101, in the fight of their long lives.

Two years after the sale of Prospect Park Residence was announced, nearly all of the assisted-living facility's 125 residents have long since heeded management's orders to leave. But five holdouts have refused, challenging the handling of the $76.5 million sale and sparking a web of litigation. Their fight sheds light on the rights of the elderly and the difficulty of transition in life's twilight.

"I think we have that right to do what we want to do," said 93-year-old Annemarie Mogil, a retired social worker who has remained in her eighth-floor apartment at the home. "I've earned my rest. I worked hard. I deserve my peace."

As the building in the trendy Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn emptied, a small band of tenants decided to put up a fight. Local politicians came to their side and The Legal Aid Society filed suit on their behalf. As the months ticked by, they said management purposely worsened conditions in hopes of convincing them to leave.