My mother recently moved into a retirement community, but is resisting making friends or taking part in activities. How can I get her more involved?

Thanks for the advice. My sister is going to join her for a couple of classes to try and get her started, but I will definitely suggest she talk to the activities manager, that's a great idea. I don't live in the same city, otherwise I could help try to get her more involved.

....from what I have read from other folks...they either keep rebeling or they get used to it after 2 to 3 weeks. Perhaps the staff know of other folks that might have her same interests or worked in the same field she did. I was thinking if I had to finally get my mom in one (she is fighting that tooth and nail) that I would ask the managers if they had other folks with a german heritage so they could rap in their own lingo...might help?

If she was sociable before going there, then she probably will eventually get herself involved. Talk to the activities director at her new place and ask them to reach out to your mother personally. You might also join in the bingo game sometime with your mother to help break the ice. But if she's like my mother-in-law who didn't have any friends to speak of, and never seemed to miss having any, then she'll probably never get involved in any activities, so forget it. Why would she change now into a social butterfly when she never was in the first place?