When Sheila encountered old age her design career’s unique experience became a guide to embrace change and shape an entire new lifestyle; the adventure of being a resident with 800+ elders all heading to the backstretch.
Baby steps ushered us to a new cosmos. But firstly, we had to hop onto a moving van parade and journey to Our Brave New World!
Pick up a suitcase and join the parade in Post 6.
Our new stomping grounds were made for old protoplasms and a multitude of us agreed that Retirement Communities* offer not only pretty sites, but opportunities to function flexibly.
Hellooo, — — future mind & body Wellness Community!
Moving reinforcements and organized brains arrived to take center stage as dear friends helped us pack, discard, discard — pack. “Downsizing is torture.”
I recall that sentence from a Washington Post article. It does take over your brain 24 hours a day because less space means making smart decisions and smart decisions can be hard. Nonessential possessions take on a new life when met with “Throw it away! Scale down this much? I love this!”
Then again, we discovered my husband scaled down too much in his quest for doing his part —”unsettled compromise” entered the picture.**
In hind-sight, we wish he had not downsized as much with his “over-the-top” life achievements shown through his music publications, world guest adjudications, textbooks, honors and more. We felt heartsick.
And now, our last goodbye.
SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WIENDERSEHEN…
We had given our queenly pet goat, Victoria Elizabeth to a farm where she could meander among possible cousins, aunts, uncles…her painted A-Frame cottage nestled under trees needed a new tenant.
We bought her to be a roaring facsimile of an electric weed eater. No way!
She expected to be treated as royalty. No weeds for her highness — honey alfalfa from a Feed Depot. Her occasional walks of prancing around our back roads suited her fitness routine.
Victoria Elizabeth’s castle was empty!
Adieu to our picturesque wicker swing….swaying to and fro…. listening to the quiet in my head, solving questions that no one was asking me to solve. It was the perfect setting for imaginary journeys.
(No swing at our new digs, but there is an appealing rose garden.)
Farewell to:
That unruffled peaceful feeling of ambled pathways in our natural haven.
We closed our court yard gates for the last time. The old wooden garage door clattered downward. The moving van parked in front of our soon-to-be former home. Movers appeared to run a fifty-yard dash as they shouldered our grand piano. It was placed on a separate truck to begin life in Arizona where our darling granddaughter’s eight old fingers would explore its keys.
Our piano first appeared in my life when I was five years old in St. Louis, took up residence in San Diego and now was traveling to reside in Phoenix.
Goodbye to our peripatetically traveling piano!
Again, we had loved this home, but its upkeep was wearing and I worried because my husband’s difficult health journey over the last 6+ years had advanced to a fragile state. His life depended on “dialysis,” — a colorless cloud of patiently being hooked up to a dialysis machine three long days a week.
The toll was always that low-grade tedium and the dialysis centers he encountered seemed to compete on being cheerless.
Technical equipment essentials certainly take precedence, but natural daylight was not a design feature in his experience.
(And as a design professional, I wholeheartedly embraced the positive physiological effects of daylight on a patient hooked up to a machine for often four hours at a time….that should be a primary consideration.) ***
Regina Brett, a distinguished journalist from the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio wrote at age 90, “the 45 lessons life taught me.”
All worthy, but today, Number 4
spoke to me:
“The best is yet to come.”
We were counting on it.
Our “merry movers” didn’t finish placing all the furniture or unpacking boxes that day, although it was supposed to be a one- day move.
“Sorry we can’t return until Saturday.” What?
Nooo,….!
This was Wednesday, December 12, the next day was our first visit to the new dialysis site. Never being there — we were going to have to dig deeper to find our way. We did. We prodded and pushed ourselves to move forward.
Remember that Washington Post sentence? “Downsizing is torture.” **** WELLL..
the second bedroom/study was stacked with boxes and furniture. Unable to sleep that first night, I searched for a book with only a faint light.
OOOPS!
I fell and landed on my tailbone.
After bumbling around for three weeks, X rays confirmed, it was broken. Of course it was. The prognosis — “healing can take between 8 to 12 weeks.”
Darn, that prognosis was right on.
Later and half-awake that first night, for some unfathomable reason, I teetered to our doorway, opened the door and looked out expecting to see a courtyard with elevator gates fronting our swimming pool, the voluminous avocado tree’s branches clamoring for space and…
This is what I saw…..
Propitious? Nirvana? Hmmm — Our New Stomping Grounds!
SALIENT POINTS:
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Emotions roiled through this process of adding value for our winter of life.
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This move to a Retirement Community was well-considered — monetarily, pragmatically & environmentally.
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We catalogued pictures & memories.
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In essence, we were excited to try a new lifestyle.
*Retirement Community ads: “Surroundings offer balance and harmony, age-friendly design, pedestrian-friendly streets, walkways and activities”.
**Thoughts from ‘A Short History of an Idea HOME,’ (W. Rybcznskii Professor of Architecture: Topics from his excellent book regarding the subject of comfort.
Personal history & possessions tell a story to become part of each persons “comfort zone.” but when efficiency and downsizing become a primary motivation, ‘unsettled compromise,’ enters the picture.”
***From the section, Dialysis Facility design—Part IV: Color, sound, and materials…
Steven B. Bower AIA — “I am a firm believer that natural daylight is still an important factor and should be a primary design consideration for a long‐term treatment area like a dialysis clinic…..after sitting in a chair without being able to move for 4–6 hours, the space may start to seem rather boring.”
****Zillow: “Moving requires emotional stamina unique to the process itself, one where you have to juggle forming a connection to a new place…”
Happy Summer Solstice Blaire