A good way to live out your elderly years, and, it’s not because your children are, abandoning you in your elderly years either! Translated…
A friend who’d lived in the States long term, after her husband died, she’d moved back to Taiwan alone, and, she’d had troubles, finding a place to live, even though she believed herself to be able-bodied, but, as she’d told the landlords or landladies her age, they’d carried that look of difficulty on their faces. At this time, she saw an article, of a ninety-three-year-old NTU professor, moving in to a retirement village in Taoyuan, and, written her masterpiece in this independent space of his; the professor told, that moving into the retirement villages WAS exactly what she’d hoped for in her elderly years, my friend was interested, and, pulled me along, to visit the place.
This proclaimed largest elderly community in the country took up a total of thirty-four acres, with seventeen being pastures, looking across, the green was very cooling in the heat of the summer. There were graceful elderly people inside the lobby, carrying on in conversation in a lowered voice, or reading paper, there’s, NO hint of that dead air like in a nursing home at all.
The receptionist told, that the elderly past age sixty, healthy, having passed the health checks, can take care of their own daily routines, are welcome to live here; there were, a lot of retired teachers and government workers who’d called on their friends, moved in together, and, there were also, a lot of those who lived abroad, and had now, come back to their roots there too. After my friend took the tour through the sample quarters, she’d exclaimed, “This, was made for me!”, she felt secure, over the independent S.O.S. system for emergencies, and how the community was able to, provide emergency services, “Rather being an elderly who lived alone outside, why not finishing my years here, in this well-thought out retirement village!”
An older woman who’d made a trip especially from Kaohsiung, just entered into her sixties, her only daughter married to Taipei, she’d kept worrying about her elderly mother who lived so far from her, and kept enticing her mother to move up north. The two of them wanted to keep a set distance between them, not too close, not too far, Taoyuan seemed just the right place. She saw the pricing for the long-term stay, mumbled to herself, “I should have enough, to live out my life here, after I sold the house in Kaohsiung!”, after we toured the mahjong room, the karaoke room, the Buddhist shrines, the library, and the seminar classrooms, the older woman got really excited like a child, especially knowing, that there was, a patch of land on the hills, to allow the residents to plant flowers or vegetables, she’d exclaimed, “Just right! This is made for me, I won’t be lonely one bit, living her.” she couldn’t wait to move in.
socializing with your neighbors and friends…photo from online…
There was a woman who was hearing impaired, but she’d, worked her hardest, to show how much she liked the living environment, she’d told, that the pricing and the down payments were no problem, only worried that being handicapped, can she pass the physical? The receptionist couldn’t answer her then. There was also, a pair of granddaughter and grandmother who were there, the granddaughter was focused on hearing the guide tell her the amenities of the place, but the elderly grandmother kept crying, “Don’t leave me here, don’t abandon me! Grandma is elderly, I don’t want to die here.”, it’d made all of us really said. As the granddaughter soothed her, she’d explained to us, that her father died, her mother and grandmother didn’t get along at all, and she was about to go abroad to England, and she can only, temporarily, place her grandmother here, there wasn’t any other way.
“Living here doesn’t mean we’re being abandoned!”, my friend attempted to help root up the elderly woman’s beliefs, she’d turned her daughter who lived in the U.S. to live with her, and lived on her own. “There’s the health professionals, with the certified nutritionists, the social workers who devise a ton of activities and plans we can take part in, the elderly grandmother living here, is cared for well, and surely, she would, live longer.”
My friend patted her chest, said, “I’ll accompany you, let’s move into the retirement apartments”. As the elderly saw her, she’d started, laughing now.
So, this turns over the beliefs about the elderly who lived in retirement communities were abandoned by their own you, instead, it’s, exactly the opposite, because as you age, you’d wanted to maintain what independence you have left, and, living alone on your own, in these sorts of places can help you gain that sense of independence you’d needed, and, there are, many activities to do, you’d be, well cared for, so, it’s, a viable option, but you’d needed to have some money saved up first.