How One Vermont Family Found the Right Memory Care Community
At The Arbors at Shelburne, expert, comprehensive care and personal connection go hand in hand
The search for the right memory care community is deeply personal and often incredibly challenging. At The Arbors at Shelburne, a Benchmark Senior Living community, many have found not just expert care, but something equally important: a sense of familiarity, trust and genuine human connection that feels close to home.
For those navigating Alzheimer’s, dementia and other forms of memory impairment, the search for care can feel overwhelming, often marked by difficult tradeoffs. The Arbors removes those barriers. As the only dually licensed Residential Care Home and Nursing Facility in the area dedicated to memory loss and complex care needs, it offers something most communities cannot: the ability for residents to transition seamlessly to skilled nursing care within the same community so they are surrounded by consistent caregivers and routines, even as their needs evolve.
For Ken Lasden of Stowe, that continuity, and the humanity behind it, made all the difference.
Ken, 75, and his wife Debby, 76, built a life defined by activity, creativity and connection. They met through work more than four decades ago and have been married for 42 years. After raising their family in the Boston area, they moved to Vermont 14 years ago to embrace their shared love of skiing and hiking.
Debby, an art school graduate from the Massachusetts College of Art, brought creativity into every part of her life. She worked as a tour guide at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and spent countless hours making pottery. In Vermont, she remained active and social, hiking with friends and enjoying the outdoors.
In 2014, just a few years after their move, subtle changes began to emerge.
The first sign was easy to dismiss: Debby got lost driving home from a place she’d visited dozens of times. It didn’t immediately register as serious, though their children began noticing changes sooner. By 2016, the diagnosis was clear—Alzheimer’s disease.
At first, life continued much as it had. The forgetfulness and confusion were gradual and manageable. Even as the disease progressed, Debby remained physically strong. The couple continued skiing together until 2022, holding onto the routines that defined them.
By 2019, however, Ken knew he needed help, a realization he describes as one of the hardest moments of his life.
“I’m not going to be able to handle this,” he recalls. “And I couldn’t, there was no way.”
Like many spouses, he did everything he could to keep Debby at home. By 2024, he had brought in caregivers to assist with things like bathing, dressing, meals and companionship. For a time, it worked. But when trusted caregivers stepped away and the demands became too great, the search for a long-term solution began.
Ken and his four children, one a nurse practitioner and another a social worker, evaluated dozens of communities, struggling to find the right fit.
Then came a moment of clarity at a support group.
A fellow member leaned over and whispered, “It’s The Arbors. Don’t even look anywhere else.”
When Ken and his family chose The Arbors, it wasn’t just for its clinical capabilities, though those were essential. What set it apart was something harder to define, but immediately felt.
“From the first day Deb was there, everyone knew her name,” Ken says. “And they knew my name too.”
That sense of being truly known defines The Arbors experience. It extends beyond friendliness into a deeply embedded culture. Associates don’t just complete tasks—they build relationships, notice changes and communicate consistently, always showing up with compassion.
Ken sees it every time he visits.
He drives an hour most days, arriving around 10:45 a.m.—a routine the staff has come to expect. When it’s broken, they notice. On one occasion, when he didn’t arrive, executive director, Wendy Brodie, was worried and called to check on him.
It’s a small gesture, but a telling one.
“If I’m not there, they tell me everything about her day—if she laughed, if she smiled, how she ate,” Ken says. “I really feel like I’m leaving Deb with family.”
That level of communication builds something invaluable: trust.
And with that trust came something Ken didn’t expect to regain, his own sense of balance.
“The Arbors has given me back my life,” he says. “I love going to see Deb, and I can go any time.”
