Retirement home seeks rent after resident dies

Nobody will ever know if Anna Hornbeck understood all the details she was agreeing to when she signed a contract outlining the terms of her stay at an assisted-living facility in St. Francis.

At 85, she was about as sharp as she ever had been throughout her lengthy career teaching math, said her son, Tracy Hornbeck.

Tracy Hornbeck, who also signed the nine-page contract, said he and his mother overlooked one important provision.

It called for the Hornbecks to pay the facility, Howard Village, for more than two months of rent and services should Anna vacate the premises before her lease was up.