ST. JOSEPH – At 84, Gladwyn Waters wouldn't mind going back to her sorority days. And if her daughters' years of hard work pay off, that just might happen.

Waters' two daughters, Mary Butzow and Genalee Tevebaugh, have been helping organize what could be the first of its kind in the United States, an Abbeyfield Society home. At more than 1,000 locations in 16 countries, Abbeyfield homes offer congregate living for seniors who are in good health but need and want the benefits of living with others.

Butzow would like to open an Abbeyfield home in St. Joseph so her mother can continue to live where she spent much of her life – excluding when she attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington to become a teacher. Because many of the country's young men were off fighting in World War II, Waters became very close to sorority sisters and still keeps in touch with a couple dear friends.

Waters wouldn't be sad about leaving the family farm.

"I can't live here all my life," she said.

Butzow and other family and friends help Waters with some day-to-day needs, especially since she gave up driving about a year ago. If Waters is going to move, she wants her new home to be in St. Joseph.

"I do my shopping there. I go to the drugstore there. It's my town," Waters said. In addition to IGA and St. Joseph Apothecary, the town offers a number of banks, places to get a haircut and style, a handful of restaurants, a post office, a library, a gas station and more.

Buying property close to St. Joseph's small business district has been a challenge.

"My feeling is if we just get one built, it's going to take off. We have five other communities wanting to see what St. Joe does," Butzow said.

The Rev. Mark Harris heads Waters' church, St. Joseph United Methodist Church, where she served as choir director for more than 30 years.

Harris is certain an Abbeyfield home would be good for St. Joseph.

"It's very important for a community like this primarily because the whole focus would be having it in the center of town," he said. "If property could be found, it would allow residents the amazing ability to meet almost all of their needs within a two-block radius.

"And it develops or maintains that sense of community that we all want."

Butzow is a nurse educator, training emergecy medical service workers, and Tevebaugh is a grammar teacher at Rantoul Junior High School.

Butzow and her husband, Charlie, a self-employed architect, became familiar with the Abbeyfield Society in the mid-1990s. "I thought it was the most remarkable thing I had ever seen," Butzow said. In 1998, they visited Abbeyfield homes in Europe and were "infected by the virus," she said, referring to how much the concept appealed to them. The key ingredient is the social opportunities the homes provide. Widows, mostly – although many have male residents – end up eating well and staving off depression in the congregate settings.

Mom always says the worst part of being widowed is eating alone with no one to talk to," Butzow said.

Abbeyfield homes usually house 10 to 12 people who gather for lunch and dinner provided by a building manager, the only employee of the facility. The manager is not a care provider but does live on site. Each Abbeyfield resident has a sponsor – usually a grown son or daughter – to whom the manager reports concerns about the resident.

Butzow plans to have residents participate in the buy-in method used by some some Abbeyfield homes overseas and in Canada. In addition to a monthly payment of about $1,200, new residents would pay just less than $100,000 to become part of Abbeyfield. They can sell their buy-in back if they move or the family can sell it if the resident dies.

The Butzows insist the value to an aging parent's adult children is immeasurable.

They estimate it would cost about $1.5 million to construct a not-for-profit Abbeyfield home in St. Joseph. They don't expect funding to be an issue.

"Banks have been receptive to our business plan," Charlie Butzow said. His wife added, "We're not reinventing the wheel. This has been done a thousand times over."

Harris believes he understands why the United States has been slow to latch on to the Abbeyfield concept. "Only people who are directly affected are going to be passionate about it," he said, adding that might be a mistake as baby boomers soon could find themselves wishing for an Abbeyfield home for themselves.

"As a graying nation, this is a huge thing to consider," Harris said.

Charlie Butzow put his thoughts in simpler terms when asked if he would want to live in an Abbeyfield home should he become a widower.

"I definitely want someone to sit across from at dinner," he said.