Backstory
After 25 years in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, we are wondering whether to spend retirement somewhere else. We’ve been weighing pros and cons, like these.
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Winter In the Bubble – #656
We lived in a bubble in the winter of 2018. We spent the coldest, snowiest months of the year at The Villages, a huge community for active adults over 55. The winding streets have beautiful landscaping, flowers bloom all year long, there is nightly dancing to live music, dozens of golf courses, a polo field, eleven country clubs and recreation galore.
It is Florida’s magic kingdom for mature adults.
A 50 page newspaper lists hundreds of events each week by different interest groups. You can go to the card game, the lecture, the swimming pool, the pickle ball court or the talent show.
But it is indeed a bubble. What’s missing? The sound of children playing in the streets, neighbors with hair that is not gray or white, anything messy.
The Villages is pristine and perfect. Over 100,000 retirees call it home. Every resident you meet sings its praises.
Critics say it is too sheltered from the outside world and lacks diversity. Residents feel they have earned this perfection in retirement and they make no apologies for their lifestyle. They volunteer, donate, support churches and tend to local underprivileged kids.
We have to decide whether we’d like to live there someday.
P.S.
What things would you take into consideration when deciding where to spend your retirement? Scroll down and share in COMMENTS. Thanks.
[Show #656]
Pushing hard to reach mid-70’s and still considering the pro and con of this. I love the idea of no yard work and some young person handling household repairs. But, I love where I currently live, walking a dog with neighbors, seeing children, hanging with multi-generations. What to do? What to do?
You have stated the dilema, Kathryn. My town has an Aging in Place Council that is trying to assure availability of the services needed as we age, so that folks can spend their full life here. It is challenging!
Ideally, for us, where we end our lives will be the place that offers the best combination of nearness to family and access to eldercare. Since our children are not completely settled, this location has not yet declared itself :-).
Certainly, it’s good for all of us over 55 to be at least thinking about it.
And it seems we all are, Elizabeth.
Perfection to me would be to live here with Julie until we both die simultaneously BUT that is not reality either. At some point one or both of us is going to require care from others whether we are here or in “The Villages”. That is what we call need to consider. Where and by who do we want that care?? The town that knows us or a place that doesn’t?
Good things to consider, Dan. It’s when lots of folks go homeward toward their adult children.
Bob and I are content to live and Volunteer in Woodstock, Virginia. We are content to stay here until the Lord calls us home. We are thankful.
Hard to leave the Valley – except in the kind of winter they predict ths time around.