With new friends and plenty of activities, you’re never alone at V!VA Barrhaven Retirement Community
When Florine Killen-Milne moved to V!VA Barrhaven Retirement Community after living alone for 16 years, she suddenly found herself surrounded with people just like her, and she couldn’t be happier.
“You’re never alone. There is always someone to talk to and I have met so many interesting people,” said Florine, who has been living at V!VA Barrhaven for three months.
The move was suggested by her three boys, who were worried about their mother’s ability to maintain her Peterborough home on her own. She is in her 80s now and one son was in Toronto, one in Quebec and a third in Ottawa, not exactly next door. They thought it would be best if she lived near one of them. V!VA Barrhaven Retirement Community was the perfect choice because of its proximity to her son in Ottawa.
“I visited a lot of different retirement communities,” said Florine, “but when I came here, I knew immediately it was home.”
V!VA Barrhaven has 145 suites, with floor-to-ceiling windows, that range in size from studios to two-bedroom apartments. The community offers an all-inclusive lifestyle with three daily meals. There is weekly housekeeping, a full activity calendar, a shuttle bus to encourage members to get out and around town, a gym, a bistro-style café, big-screen movie theatre, saltwater pool and even a lifelike golf simulator, which is the first one of its kind at any retirement community anywhere in Canada.
Florine has always been active and has loved sports ever since she was a girl. She especially enjoys the gym and the customized fitness programs that are offered to all residents to suit their individual abilities. She also enjoys the walking paths that are part of the grounds at V!VA Barrhaven.
While Florine owns her own car, she actually prefers using V!VA Barrhaven’s shuttle bus that takes residents on outings because she admits she doesn’t know the area very well yet and jokes that she keeps getting lost. In her explorations, she has found a lot of nice shops in the area that she likes to visit.
V!VA Retirement Communities is Canadian owned and operated, and manages several locations across the country with Barrhaven being the newest. Reasons that Barrhaven was chosen for a V!VA Retirement Community include its central location in one of Ottawa’s fastest-growing communities, ready access to shopping and services along nearby Strandherd Drive, and its proximity to the highway, train station and airport. It’s also easily accessible from neighbouring communities like Stittsville, Manotick, and Kanata.
“This is really meant to be a place that is vibrant,” said Chelsea Ramsay, the community relations manager at V!VA Barrhaven. “It’s encouraging people to get out to do things. There is tons of natural light and really nice finishes. A lot of folks come in and say this really feels like a cruise ship. The main difference is that this is their home so we put a lot of emphasis on the quality of the people we hire because we know the better quality that our team is, the better care that is going to be delivered to our community members.
“We’ve put more emphasis on our amenities that encourage social interaction so our Perks Café is the central hub of the retirement community,” she said. “It really encourages people to spend time with one another and meet new people; new neighbours as well as friends from outside the community. We encourage a lot of interaction with local organizations and groups.”
Florine says that one of the best places to meet fellow residents is at meal time. “There are no assigned seats,” she said. “You can sit wherever you want and every night you eat with different people.”
She also praised the quality and variety of the food, and while she misses cooking she did admit she brought her cookbooks to her new home and may try her hand at making some desserts soon.
As for the staff at V!VA Barrhaven, Florine gave them nothing but high marks. “Everyone is smiling and they are so attentive. You don’t want for anything,” she said.
Florine loves the retirement community so much that she’s convinced some of her friends to come live there and is happy that her sons helped her make the decision to finally move out of her house.
“I knew the day was coming,” she said, “but my sons thought it was time so rather than wait more years, why not move now while I have good years left?” For more information visit vivalife.ca/communities/ ottawa/barrhaven or call 613-823-0220.