BEULAH - Ruth and Gerald Erickson left Dickinson and moved to Beulah so they could gather their daughter and her family around a warm meal of pot roast and mashed potatoes every Thursday night.

The Ericksons retired earlier this year and joined a small, but noticeable trickle of parents who've followed their grown children to communities in Coal Country.

It's the reverse of leaving the nest, or perhaps it's feathering a new nest in their child's "tree," so to speak.

The retired newcomers add to the communities' populations - a good thing in any town. More importantly, the renewed closeness builds longstanding relationships in new and different ways.

The Ericksons and Alma Conlon, also of Beulah, and Betty Lou and Warren Jensen, of Hazen, wouldn't have moved to Coal County had their children not been here.

Each lives in his or her own home and is either helped by, or helps out their family, depending on age and circumstance.

Ruth Erickson is 60 and her husband, Gerald, 66.

Their daughter and her husband, Rhonda and Greg Obrigewitch, embarked on a good-humored campaign to get the Ericksons to move to Beulah after he retired about a year ago.

They sent maps highlighted with Beulah and nearby attractions and in every way made clear their hopes that the Ericksons would move nearby, said Rhonda Obrigewitch.

She said her parents traveled to every game and activity involving their three grandchildren anyway.

"This way, they wouldn't have to drive back at night," she said. "We just wanted them here. It's a good thing."

The Ericksons say their Dickinson friends were dumbfounded, wondering why they'd leave a town they liked and a wide social circle to live in small town where their daughter's family was their only connection.

To them, it was the connection that mattered. After some, but not lengthy thought, they bought a lot in Beulah and a new house to put on it.

They say they love living two blocks, instead of two counties away, having the grandkids pop in and out for cookies and hugs and backing up busy parents by transporting kids to the doctor or after-school practice.

Granddaughter Hannah Obrigewitch paused before answering what she likes most about having her grandparents living down the street. "Everything," she said.

Ruth Erickson says the endless conversations with the grandkids, the opportunities for her husband to tell them he loves them, are payoff enough, though it turns out they like the community, too. It's why the Ericksons slow life down every Thursday and get everybody around their table for a homemade supper and a three-generation conversation.

"Life is chapters in a book and this is our new book," said Ruth Erickson. "We're here for now."

Kathy Kelsch is in a new chapter with her mom, Alma Conlon, 75, too.

In something of a hurry, the Conlons moved to Beulah in 2005 and her dad died a week after the couple had settled into their new condo-style home.

They'd cherished their rural Richardton ranch life, but Alma Conlon knew they needed to be closer to medical care for her husband and that she, when it came to that, couldn't live out on the ranch alone.

Conlons have four children, but Kelsch's location up the road in Beulah was familiar ground.

"We wanted to stay a little closer to where we were and where we feel comfortable," Conlon said.

Kelsch said she talks to her mom every day and sees her nearly as often.

"I can't imagine her being anywhere else. I'd worry too much. It's nice to have the backup too," Kelsch said.

Conlon said she wouldn't want to hurt her other grandchildrens' feelings, but a bonus to the move is the casual, rush-in-the-door-for-hugs relationship that she has with her Beulah granddaughters, especially Morgan, the youngest, whom she often picks up from school at the end of the day. "I've been able to develop a relationship with her that I otherwise wouldn't have," she said.

Conlon's Beulah life is filled with volunteering at the nursing home, sewing, church and social activities. She said it isn't uncommon for her to drive off from her condo in the morning and return mid-afternoon.

"I was 'Kathy's mom' for a long time until I got my identity back," Conlon said. "It feels so good."

Kelsch said if there is a "negative" - and she wouldn't even use that word - it's in trying to find enough time for everything, for keeping track of clearing snow from two driveways, not one, for example. That's offset an immeasurable degree by sharing life - right down to the Kelsch family dog that frequently decides he'd just as soon spend the night at Conlon's with her mom, she says.

"I wouldn't want it any other way," Kelsch said.

Betty Lou, 78, and Warren Jensen, 79, returned to where they'd spent their youngest years - she in Beulah until the age of 5 and he in Hazen until the age of 12 - when they moved to Hazen into a new home they built in city limits near Antelope Creek.

Both have some health problems and after a medical career (his) in Valley City and a second career in antiquing (hers) in Park Rapids, Minn., they wanted to be closer to their children, with Fargo near their two daughters, or Hazen, near their son, as choices.

Betty Lou Jensen said she told her husband after 19 fun years of living out her passion for antiques it was his turn to choose.

"He said he would like to go home," she said.

Home also was where their son's family, Gaylen and Pam Jensen, live, and they say they likely wouldn't have moved to Hazen otherwise. It helped that after years of living a few hours from their daughters in the Red River Valley, Gaylen Jensen told his parents, "It's my turn now," Betty Lou Jensen said.

Betty Lou Jensen said she first made certain their move suited everyone. "The daughter-in-law has to want it, too," she said.

"She told us it would be a privilege. She's a jewel," Warren Jensen said.

Their son supervised construction of their home, built all on one level, flooded with sunlight and designed to showcase some of the antique treasures they've collected.

They moved in a year ago and said the connection with their son and his wife is a touchstone of life, now.

"We have each other over for meals, we take care of each other's dogs and they keep track of us," Warren Jensen said. If either of the elder folks is ill, the younger Jensens make it a point to stop in every day.

Gaylen Jensen said he's become closer to his parents than he's ever been in his life, especially after years of only seeing them a couple of times a year while he was raising his own family and they were in Minnesota.

"It's been a blessing. Now I can pay them back for all they did for me," he said. "A lot of people don't get that chance."

He said he's got the time to help them, since he works four-day shifts, and because his own children are grown and gone and there's always a "lift this, move that" list of things to do when he stops in.

"They're available if we're in a bind," said Betty Lou Jensen.

The only problem is that while the elder Jensens enjoy the companionship of their children, they miss the friendships they made over many years in Park Rapids.

"It's not that people aren't nice; they couldn't be nicer. But at this age in life, most people have already made their friends," Betty Lou Jensen said.

The fact that Hazen and Beulah have good medical providers, and a range of care options up to and including a nursing home, factored into retirees' decision, particularly for Conlon and the Jensens.

Linda Wright, who works in aging services for the Department of Human Services, said there are federal funds available, through state Human Service Centers, for families who need support, counseling or respite care in helping older parents.

None of these families know how the future will play out and how all the various ways they help and support each other now may change, like life always does.

Betty Lou Jensen said she and her husband have made their last move, to Hazen, to their son and daughter-in-law's caring closeness.

They bought a cemetery plot before they bought the lot where they built a house.

"We'll stay until the good Lord calls us," Betty Lou Jensen said.

Gaylen Jensen said he expected his parents would need him more than they do, but they manage well for the most part and always seem to have something going to keep them occupied.

"We'll spend more time as they need more time. The future, we know what's coming. We'll deal with that when it comes," he said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)