Recently, at a luncheon of about 12 friends, I asked the women where they planned to go for assisted living.

The question was on my mind because my sister, age 72, had a heart attack a few weeks earlier. She’s moved from her Seattle home to another city in Washington state to stay at an assisted living facility where she can get help around the clock and to be near her daughters.

My friends didn’t have any place in mind. All said they wanted to grow older in their homes. “I want to be carted out of there when I die,” one friend said.

Baby boomers, a generation known for their inventiveness and independence, want to age in place in their homes rather than going to nursing homes.

It’s the best option, said Diane Carbo, R.N. and geriatric care manager, in the article “Top 10 Reasons Why Baby Boomers Want to Age in Place” on Ezine Articles.com.

Surveys by the AARP found that more than 85 percent of Americans age 50 and older want to “stay in my own home and never move.”

Aging in place will work well for boomers who are more likely to work longer, start a second career, volunteer, or go back to school.

“Baby boomers want to live well, be healthy, live comfortably, and age in familiar surroundings,” Carbo said in the article.

She offers ten top reasons for boomers to live their golden years in their homes, with the help of home healthcare.

Aging in place:

1. Allows for maximum amount of freedom for the individual.
2. Is safe.
3. Promotes healing.
4. Gives the adult who is growing older some control.
5. Can allow for the care to be personalized.
6. Is comfortable.
7. Contributes to a healthier, safer, and happier life.
8. Allows boomers to remain in their communities.
9. Is enhanced by advanced technology to support boomers as they grow older.
10. Reduces the fear of loss of independence.

Health care providers, government agencies, and communities are looking at ways to assist boomers age in place.

At a boomer housing conference I attended last fall described Matt Thornhill, co-founder of the Boomer Project, said renovating homes for aging boomers will be a big business for the next 20 years.

Thornhill also pointed out a new trend; boomers will create naturally occurring retirement communities in existing neighborhoods to facilitate service delivery.

Boomer also will move to the city from suburbia. And they’ll live in cohousing and other types of intergenerational living and pods – a one-bedroom, temporary structure wired to the main house.

While aging in place offers many advantages, having a plan B in mind is a good idea.

Neither one of my parents, who retired to Wenatchee, Wash., wanted to go to a nursing home.

The photo above of my parents and me was taken in the late 1980s while they were still living in their own home.

In 1990, my dad, a farmer, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is linked to pesticide exposure. He spent about a month in a nursing home before he died.

My mom, a diabetic, lived at home until 1997 when she had a heart attack. She then went to a nursing home for eight years. She died in 2005.

It’s not pleasant to think about getting older and possible declining health. It’s also challenging to figure out what to do to prepare.

The financial planner I work with urged me to buy long-term care insurance.

“When the boomers get old, it’ll be Quonset huts and oatmeal,” he said. He’d talked with a friend who works in healthcare, and she’d reported the industry and government aren’t ready for the explosion of older boomers who’ll need care.

I wonder if he’s right.

I hope, like most boomers, that I’ll be able to age in place in my home.