Ageing happily

It’s not often I read one of Rosemary McLeod’s columns and am left wondering what exactly she was on about, whether I agree with her or not. I reread her latest column several times and came to the conclusion that she was trying to cover too many issues at once.

She seemed to be confusing rest homes with villages. Poor old Ryman copped her anger, but the fact is their villages have waiting lists. Why? I don’t know about the rest of the country, but here in Christchurch many of us have just got sick of not being able to get tradesmen to do the small repair jobs we needed doing to our large homes. That was on top of realising that we were living in a small fraction of our houses and that a different lifestyle would suit us much better.

I now live as independently as I did before (not ‘‘warehoused’’). I can do just as much gardening as I want. Anything left over is picked up by the gardeners (a lovely bunch of fellows). Anything that goes wrong in the house is seen to by our maintenance man and when I went off on a trip to Europe last year, I went happy in the knowledge that my property was watched over day and night. There is a programme of outings and entertainment which one can opt into. There are free exercise classes on site.

I am really sorry Annemarie Treadwell had depression. It is very unpleasant and isolating. And it is not restricted to those of retirement village age. Rest homes vary in quality and potential residents and their families are advised to tour a number before making a decision. Ask for a copy of the contract.

In the meantime, I and my friends agree that we’ve made a great decision for our time of life and we are enjoying every minute of it.