title: Doing it my way.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Historically, hotels and single-room occupancy residences have provided room, board, and social support services to elders, in particular the poor and the disenfranchised. This article presents the results of a case study drawn from a larger ethnographic community study that set forth to describe how and why elders from one rural community chose to live in a motel in that same rural community. The focus of this study is a description of 7 middle-income and affluent rural elders living in a motel setting as a housing option that enabled them to remain independent in their community.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a community study ethnographic design and the strategies of formal and informal interviews, participant observation, and inductive comparative case study analysis, this study provides a description of why these elders decided to live in the motel and how this facilitated their living in the community.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reasons that these elders decided to live at the motel included "saving my energy for living," "safety," "connections and privacy," and "the freedom to come and go." This study informs elder care policy, emphasizing the importance of naturally occurring networks to develop community capacity for healthy aging in one rural setting.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Our Lady of the Lake College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. lisa.skemp@ololcollege.edu.
authors.forename: Lisa E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Skemp
authors.affiliation: University of Iowa College of Nursing, Iowa City.
authors.forename: Meridean L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Maas
authors.affiliation: Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Umbarger-Mackey
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006798:Housing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012944:Social Support; D014481:United States
keywords: Case study; Community; Motel; SRO; Self-care-related choices