Specialists move seniors with care

By Bob Moos
The Dallas Morning News

RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT / DALLAS MORNING NEWS John Fortunato, of Dallas moving company Senior Living Resource, loads a chair onto a truck while helping move Leigh Rogers, 82.

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DALLAS — The movers left something extra behind at Leigh Rogers' new Dallas apartment — a small garden sculpture for her patio, with a thank-you card attached.

"You didn't have to do this," the 82-year-old told the workers, who were studying photographs to make sure they placed the books on her shelves in the same order they had been at her old apartment.

"You're all so sweet," she said. Then they hugged.

These were no ordinary movers. They did not just pack up Rogers' belongings and unload them at the new place. They helped her sort through what to get rid of, shop for a new sofa and arrange the decorations to match the rooms of her former home as much as possible.

Rogers' movers represented a small but growing segment of the $7 billion U.S. moving industry — senior-moving specialists. They specialize in handling not just furniture, but also feelings, as the baby boomers' aging parents leave the family home.

	RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT / DALLAS MORNING NEWS Mover Christina Medina prepares to seal a box of items belonging to Leigh Rogers.

"We take the drama out of moving," said Tach Branch-Dogans, president of Senior Living Resource of Dallas, which handled Rogers' move.

To be sure, major moving companies have begun to offer more personalized services, and individual "move concierges" offer similar services. But the senior angle is a niche unto itself.

There is even a trade group, the National Association of Senior Move Managers, with about 70 members across the country.

And with the first of the nation's 76 million baby boomers expected to reach retirement age in 2011, the field promises to become even larger and more lucrative in the next couple of decades, according to Paul Kleyman, an editor with the American Society on Aging.

"Moving out of your home and into a strange setting can be psychologically difficult for an older adult," Kleyman said. "These new businesses try hard to act as a calming influence and help people deal with their anxiety."

Senior movers' services come at a price, of course.

A move from a house into an apartment within the same area can cost between $1,800 and $3,500. That is anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent more than a conventional moving company.

But senior movers' services are far more comprehensive and personal.

	RICHARD MICHAEL PRUITT / DALLAS MORNING NEWS Frances Vasquez takes pictures of Leigh Rogers' apartment before the move. Moving-company employees use the pictures to remember where items should be placed in Rogers' new apartment.

"I haven't seen too many mainstream movers get hugs from their clients when they're done, but it happens all the time to us," notes Margit Novack, president of the national association.

Phyllis Smith, owner of Senior Moving Co. of Dallas, says a growing part of her business comes from adult children who cannot do all the work themselves because they live out of town or have other family responsibilities.

"We're often called during a time of crisis — someone has lost her health or maybe her spouse — and we're asked to help with what can be a nerve-racking experience," Smith said.

By the time an older adult moves because of advancing age or poor health, "the children often have run themselves ragged, taking their parent back and forth to the doctor," Novack said. "They're stressed out and ready to let someone else make the decisions."

George Starry said it would have taken him months to sort through his mother-in-law's University Park, Texas, house — "she was a 92-year-old pack rat." But Smith's senior movers did it in a few days.

"It's hard for a greenhorn like me to move a loved one out of her home," Starry said. "You need someone who's careful about older people's feelings and can still get the job done."

Leslie McMillin, owner of Moving Miracles of Dallas, joked she is a "rent-a-daughter" but with an advantage over the real thing: Her customers follow her advice.

"I can be a voice of authority," she explained. "A daughter may tell her mother a thousand times to throw something out. But then I come in and say the same thing, and Mother listens."

McMillin said that when she lost her high-tech job after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she reflected on how she could put more meaning into her life. She had been raised by her grandparents and thought that creating her senior-oriented business would be a way of giving back to older generations.

Most of these moving specialists are middle-age women who are on their second or third careers, Novack said. Many have backgrounds in gerontology, nursing, psychology and social work.

Others are corporate exiles who decided they "didn't want their tombstones simply to read, 'She raised second-quarter profits 25 percent.' They want to do something that touches lives," she said.

The moving specialists' first task is to help the seniors downsize their belongings so they can fit into, say, a retirement-center efficiency or a one-bedroom apartment.

Senior movers understand they are dealing not just with "stuff" but with a lifetime of memories, Smith said.

To encourage downsizing, the movers have their customers place models of their furniture on a floor plan of the new apartment.

"They soon see for themselves what fits and what must go," Novack said.

Many senior movers hold estate sales for their customers, arrange the shipment of family heirlooms to relatives and donate unwanted furniture and clothing to charities.

Once everything has been packed, the heavy lifting begins. Aware that some of her customers have a hands-on supervisory style, Smith said, she gives her crew a pre-move pep talk to remind them to be patient and understanding.

"I tell them it's what we do," she explained. "It's why they hire us."

In the new apartment, the movers try to re-create, on a smaller scale, the home left behind. Using photos they had taken of walls, curio cabinets and tabletops in the old home, they hang pictures and arrange knickknacks.

"Matching a room" is especially important to older adults who are having trouble with their memories and require familiar settings, Branch-Dogans said.

Other tricks of the trade: Never place shoes in a far corner of a closet. Be careful where you use throw rugs because they can trip seniors with walkers. Always put dishes on low shelves. And do not forget to fluff the pillows.

Edie-Beth Ehrler, director of marketing at the Presbyterian Village North retirement center in Dallas, said she has found that residents who use specialized moving services tend to adapt more quickly to their surroundings.

"They don't have to worry about unpacking," she said. "They can jump into the retirement center's activities right away."

Nor do most senior movers consider their job done when the last box has been unpacked.

A week after Branch-Dogans moved Grace Willems' mother into a Dallas retirement home, she visited the 87-year-old to check up on her.

"I was impressed," Willems recalled. "It's reassuring to know someone cares as much about your mother as you do."

Rogers had heard about Branch-Dogans' company from a friend.

A good-humored, petite woman with the manner of a favorite aunt, Rogers said she has moved upward of 30 times in her life.

Her last move had been from Albuquerque, N.M., a year ago, when she sold her house there and rented a two-bedroom apartment in Dallas to be closer to her son and grandchildren. She used conventional movers, which meant her family still had a lot of work to do.

This time, for her move into more permanent Dallas digs, she called Senior Living Resource. Weeks ahead of the move, Branch-Dogans helped Rogers shop for living-room furniture.

As moving day approached, the workers helped their client sort through her belongings.

On the big day, they overcame a broken elevator at her old apartment, hauling furniture and boxes into her new place during the wee hours.

In the new apartment, one mover placed the family portraits on the piano just as they had stood in the old apartment. Another put Rogers' books on the shelves in the same order as before.

And Branch-Dogans stood on a stepladder and asked Rogers where to hang the pictures she had painted or acquired over her life.

Rogers cherishes her family photos, her hundreds of books and her eclectic collection of oil and watercolor paintings.

Branch-Dogans and her team listened closely as she reminisced about her grown granddaughters' childhoods, a biography of entertainer Eddie Cantor she was reading and the portrait she had painted of her brother standing in a Missouri tobacco field.

Hours later, the movers knew they had accomplished their job when Rogers declared, "At last, it feels like home."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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