Move to village apartment means staying local for couple
Glenys and John Lamb lived just 478 metres away from Bupa Parkstone Retirement Village in Ilam, Christchurch for 51 years, long before a village was even thought of.
The couple had built their own family home all those years ago, but after becoming empty nesters they were finding the garden areas were becoming harder to upkeep.
“When your house and garden becomes a maintenance problem, for goodness sake move. We decided it would be better to move into a village together rather than one at a time,” John says.
After researching a few other local retirement villages, the couple realised the apartments on offer weren’t as nice as the brand new two bedroom apartments at Bupa Parkstone Retirement Village.
“We had a look at a couple of apartments and opened the door on this particular one which had a view, large lounge, two bedrooms and I turned to the village person and said YES, when do you want the money?” Glenys explains with a smile.
The couple, who are in their 80’s, moved in last year and have made a real effort to meet their village neighbours. Glenys has played the village bingo and joined the knitting group, while John has taken up regular swimming in the onsite village pool, as well as keeping up his regular tennis, golf and walking.
Glenys and John are also happy that they’re still able to live in the same local area where they’ve lived all their married lives. Even though they now have a large family (three children, nine grandchildren, and two great grandchildren) to keep them active and engaged, the decision to move into a village still had them considering the future.
“Another reason for us to come to this village was that it has a care home attached. Many other big ones don’t have that and we felt, with our age, we needed to think about that,” adds Glenys.
