Back in August, we blogged about a Chicago Tribune story on ‘outsourcing long-term care to India.’ The story was about a son moving his father there for care, because he’d get more personal attention and it was less expensive. Also, a recent ABC News story looked at people moving from the United States to get long-term care in Mexico. These folks should have checked out a few rural U.S. communities before heading out of the country.What is so striking is the sense of community (and family members caring for family members) that you find in many smaller towns’ senior communities. A reminder of this again was the recent 90th Anniversary Celebration for Bethany Community on the shores of Lake Winona in Alexandria, Minn. More than 600 neighbors showed up for their public picnic. I’m sure there were probably some people related there, but when you walk inside Bethany Community and many senior communities in rural America, you find family … literally. Here are a couple of examples:Jeannie Klimek (left in center, with her parents) has been the ‘chief of first impressions’ at Bethany Community for 21 years. In her role as receptionist, she’s often the first person that people come in contact with at Bethany Community. Now stay with me on these various connections …Jeannie’s father Vern Chan (everyone knows him as Bud) is here with his lifelong best buddy Duane Persson on Machinery Hill at the Douglas County (Minn.) Fair. Vern and Duane are now next door neighbors at Bethany Community and still best buddies. Jeannie’s mother Christine Chan is known by every one as Tinker. She lives at Bethany Community, too. Vern, I mean Bud, gave her the name Tinker because ‘she was alway tinkering on their family’s farm.’Then there’s Irmadene Knudson, RN, who is director of nursing at Bethany Community. Her mom was a nursing assistant at Bethany, Irmadene followed in her footsteps starting as a nursing assistant when she was 16. Irmadene and her three daughters (two of whom have followed her into nursing) often visited Irmadene’s grandmother who also lived at Bethany Community. Irmadene has had several other relatives live at Bethany Community, too.You’ll find many of these types of connections in other rural communities. It’s a powerful, beautiful thing … communities and family members caring for their loved ones. Before people think about outsourcing care to another country, they should check out rural America.