TheGraphicOnline

A sort of warning is in order: This is entirely a personal column, and should be of interest, if any, only to people who might want to know what Faye and I are doing. That really narrows it down, doesn’t it? Truthfully, I don’t know if anybody reads this blog, because there’s rarely a comment on it. I’ll just have to charge it up to private palaver, or perhaps like a dog howling at the moon.

Whatever.

Here’s what it’s like to leave the home you’ve lived in for 51 years and move into the best motel in town. It might have been fun if we hadn’t added collectable junk during each one of those 51 years and, also, if we’d always wanted to spend the rest of our lives in a motel.

But I’m not being fair to our new abode. Friends Fellowship Community is really a jewel of a place to move into. Without question, it is well-run, comfortable, fully modern, beautifully landscaped, and populated with surprisingly helpful employees and friendly residents. They ply you with so much well-prepared food out there that I’ve stopped saying nice things about it in my wife’s presence for fear she’ll think I think it’s THAT much better than what she used to fix for us.

Not only do they prepare these good meals, they expect you to be there – or else. The “or else” means that if you are signed up to attend all meals and you don’t appear, they call you – and ask if you are all right — which is a nice safety factor, I suppose. You want to know how much the residents value the food? Well, if you ever visit the main dining room about a half hour before it opens, you’ll find a bunch out in the hall waiting for the door to open. And the door opens three times a day about an hour before we’re used to eating, so that’s one of the ways we are trying to adapt. My whole life is not regulated by the FFC meal schedule.

Even though the orientation to this new lifestyle takes times (as all the other residents will tell you), it’s nothing compared with preparing to move there by clearing out 51 years of accumulation in the old place. That almost did us in. So I won’t take up your time now in describing that ordeal.

Friends Fellowship Community is – I suppose, like all retirement homes – a different world. Having people wait on you hand & foot is not what most of us are used to. But so far it is very pleasant. We’re adjusting to our new life in the protective cocoon that is what they call a Continuous Care Center. Friends Fellowshhip is a very nice fur-lined warehouse where they stockpile oldsters with the aim of keeping them happy for the duration.

–Vic Jose

Vic Jose :: Oct.04.2009 :: Uncategorized ::

Trackback URI | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed