A 38-year-old Australian woman who has been living in a retirement home for a year claims moving there as a way to start over was the best decision she ever made.
After her long-term romantic relationship with her partner came to an end, the 38-year-old woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, decided it was time for a fresh start and moved out of their shared apartment in Melbourne. She spent two months living in an Airbnb, which proved costly, and when she started looking for an apartment she could actually afford, she found the places on offer weren’t very enticing. But when she visited her aunt at a retirement village and told her that she was looking for a place, the elderly woman asked her if she wanted to try an apartment that had just opened up in the village. Her relatively young age wouldn’t be a problem, the woman’s aunt said, so she decided to fill up the paperwork and give the retirement home a chance. It turned out to be the best decision she ever made.
Photo: Dominik Lange/Unsplash
“I’ve been living in the retirement village for a little over a year. I’ve stopped considering it a stepping stone to a better place, and I now see it as my home,” the Australian woman told Business Insider. “I’ve never felt out of place, and living around people who are not in a rush to live life or consumed by tech has been great for my mental health. It’s a kind of haven.”
For one thing, the two-bedroom apartment in the retirement village is dirt cheap! It costs just AU$500 including the service fee, whereas the average two-bedroom in Melbourne typically goes for AU$2800 to AU$3200. But this is only part of what makes living in a retirement home so amazing for the 38-year-old woman. She lives a peaceful existence surrounded by friendly neighbors who are always eager to help or offer friendly advice, and her life in general is much simpler than it used to be.
Although most people ask her if she doesn’t find living in a retirement village boring, the 38-year-old woman said that she considers it therapeutic. She wakes up to the faint oldies-but-goldies of her neighbors, enjoys a cup of coffee, reads a newspaper, and usually takes a short walk in the morning. Then she takes chair yoga classes, does some cycling, plays bingo every Wednesday, and even manages to get some freelance work done. In the evenings, she “walks to the nearby grocery store or diner, bakes, or sits on the porch and goes down memory lane in unending conversations.”
Photo: Cassandra Ortiz/Unsplash
“My new home has reshaped my life ambitions and the way I view aging,” the woman said. “I’ve found immense peace here, and it’s my definition of a wonderful life. It’s comforting to know that the 70s and 80s aren’t so bad after all. As I’ve learned from those around me, you can still have agency, volunteer, make friends, and start new hobbies, no matter your age.”
Some people just laugh it off, and her family still thinks she is too young to live in a retirement home, but the 38-year-old woman has embraced her new lifestyle and has no plans to leave her new community anytime soon.
Interestingly, this kind of experience isn’t unique. Just last year, we wrote about another 38-year-old woman in China who was so exhausted by her daily life that she decided to take refuge in a retirement home for a while. She was just as delighted by the experience and didn’t want to go back to her old life.
