Two old pals find the perfect route to a happy retirement
THEY became friends more than 500 miles from the UK. Even though Mollie Lufkin and Frances El Housami are both from Britain, it was in Geneva that they raised their families with their husbands, enjoying all that the city at the foot of the Swiss Alps has to offer.
When their husbands died, Mollie and Frances found themselves alone, with their children having built their own lives back in Britain.
But they found a way to keep their close friendship strong – and also be near their children – by buying homes in the same Sussex retirement village.
It was Mollie, 75, who moved into Charters Village first, something she describes as a ‘major life change’.
‘I didn’t just move house – I downsized, I left all my friends and I moved country. I came back to the UK, where I hadn’t lived for 47 years.’
Mollie had moved to Geneva in 1969 with her husband Frank and their three young children. As for Frances, she had gone to Geneva for a three-month temporary job in 1973 and ended up staying for 43 years. It was there that she met her husband Riad, and they had a son.
Mollie knew about American retirement villages and liked the lifestyle such places offered, but when she told her friends in Geneva that she wanted to live in such a place in Britain to be near her children, they were ‘horrified’, she says. ‘They said, “You’re too young, you’re going to get old.” And two of my sons said that too! But, without exception, they’ve all changed their minds since I’ve been here.
‘It’s not a question of getting old here – it’s just such fun.’
Mollie’s enthusiasm for the place rubbed off on Frances, 70, and she also moved in.
The well-travelled friends say they now have the best of both worlds – the way the village is run means that they have a ready-made social life when they are there but also the confidence to leave their homes for periods of time.
They both headed back to Geneva recently to attend a friend’s birthday party.
‘I wanted an easy-to-manage property that was in a peaceful location and secure,’ Frances says. ‘I also wanted an opportunity to make new friends and not be reliant on friends and family in the future.’
She adds: ‘There is a wonderful community feel here, it is peaceful and secure, and if you need help, it is available.’
New-build one-bedroom apartments at Charters Village, which is near East Grinstead and is a Retirement Villages development, start from £380,000. The various levels of help on hand for retirees are drawing increasing numbers of pensioners to such developments.
Similarly, Richmond Villages, which is part of the Bupa group, offers a number of grades of assistance at seven retirement complexes in Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Derbyshire. This is in addition to the restaurants, cafes, spas, bowling greens and landscaped gardens that are part of their villages.
Richmond Villages’ latest development is currently under construction near Evesham, Worcestershire – apartments there start at £350,000.
McCarthy & Stone has dozens of developments around Britain. Its latest site is Albert Court in Henleyon-Thames, where properties can be bought from this spring.
Prices have yet to be released but it will be classed as a Retirement Living Plus development, the highest of the three levels of service that McCarthy & Stone offers. This means there will be personal support for retirees and on-site catering.