I'll try to keep this brief as I tend to be wordy.
My father-in-law died in December. Mr. Mandalay has four sisters, one of whom is blind. I've had some experience with blind people, my most notable being an ex-boyfriend. All of them were very self-sufficient, having gone to hard-core training schools as teenagers.
My sister-in-law is not like that. She does live by herself and she has a guide dog but these days he's a pet--I'm also pretty sure he's past service age. She lives on frozen entrees and stuff like cereal because she can't cut up food or cook. She uses some public transit but mostly depends on another sister to take her shopping and other places. I totally blame Mr. Mandalay's family for this situation. They had the money to send her to one of these schools but chose not to for whatever reason, and they--and yes, I include my husband--tend to treat her like a retarded six-year-old (she's 54).
She and two of my other sisters-in-law live in Virginia Beach while the other lives in Charleston, West Virginia. She wants to leave Virginia Beach, mainly because one of the VB Contingent is borderline psycho while the one who helps her out has a martyr complex and clearly doesn't want to help anymore. Charleston SIL said "absolutely not" to the possibility of Blind SIL coming out there, which leaves ... Richmond.
Now in some ways Richmond would be good since there are more services available here. Under the circumstances, however, I'm not sure. Money is not an issue--she has a pretty fat nest egg and gets some sort of disability payments. There are two apartment complexes only a few blocks from where we live that would work for her in terms of security. Each has pros and cons. Virginia Beach is basically one huge suburb; there's no such thing as "downtown Virginia Beach." Where we live is very urban and I know for certain that Blind SIL has never been in any sort of urban environment. Richmond can be challenging to able-bodied people with no street smarts. Add in blindness and I sense a train wreck coming. Mr. Mandalay is very gung-ho on the idea and doesn't seem to realize that even if Blind SIL does want to come this is going to be a huge change for her and she's going to have to learn some stuff or at the very least get a new guide dog.
Anyone have any advice or experience in something like this?