Most of us spend busy lives – working, running around, chasing after things, rushing here and there, always short of time, always taking short cuts and always forgetting one thing or another. Mine was like that. And then we moved to a retirement home and presto! A magic change.
This is an alternative lifestyle. Living in a retirement home is different. But there is a drawback that is a trifle worrying.
I never have to leave here, in fact if it wasn’t for odd forays to the supermarket or to the bank… There is a mini-market here in the building. This involves an elevator trip of 3 floors and pushing a miniature sized trolley back to the apartment. The bank comes here once a week, enough for my needs, and I can do my business, such as it is, on the spot. The gym is here, complete with instructor and muscle-making machines, the art studio is here. The pool is under my balcony and there’s the library next door. I am force-fed culture at the 6:30 lecture every evening and I don’t have to go outside to find a synagogue. There’s even a movie once a week.
As far as food is concerned, there is a dining room which I can choose to visit or not and which even allows me to take food up to the apartment. For company there is a coffee shop and lounge and to cap it all there is a hairdresser through that door in the corner. The nurse and doctor are in the clinic and a dentist comes around.
I can’t think of anything that’s missing but I keep wondering about the difference in lifestyles between then and now. This one is dangerous – it consists of doing almost nothing!
