Interview with Berwick by the Sea residents, Larry and Betty Pollard

Betty:
We love it at Berwick by the Sea. The staff is incredible. We keep busy with activities. Larry’s taken over the shuffleboard. He started that in February, and we have 32 members signed up. The staff, like Sandra in activities, has been very supportive in buying supplies and stuff like that and supporting Larry. We’re quite content here. We came here because of me. I have rheumatoid arthritis. So we needed to make a lifestyle change.

Larry:
We’ve been here a year. We’ll be here a year on November 1st. We moved in from Cumberland, which is about half an hour away from Campbell River. We just can’t thank Berwick enough for what we have here. It’s been perfect for us.

Larry:
I look after the shuffleboard group, and I really enjoy that. We have a very active group. We have tournaments going on constantly. Berwick by the Sea has one shuffleboard table, so we have approximately 30 members. We have tournaments, and that’s how we all get together over a period of one or two or even three weeks to play our tournaments off. That’s our favorite. Betty belongs to the book club and Creative Writing.

Larry:
The atmosphere at Berwick by the Sea is very uplifting. They’re always promoting activities to keep people busy, and they do a very good job of that. Pat, Selena, Serena, and Amy in the activities area have constantly got things going, from crafts to special events. Yesterday we had a tequila tasting group take place in our Fireside Lounge, and they had the tables all set up and various types of tequila, and we could taste it and comment on it. They did a talk on all the different brands and where they’re from. So they’ve got everything.

Betty:
We’re dressing up as mimes, painting our faces white, and we have black and white shirts and clown shoes and the gloves that a mime carries on their hands. We’ve got a guy coming in to play guitar and sing. We’re going down the hallway probably singing with our outfits on.

Betty:
The view at Berwick by the Sea is just incredible. The other Berwick facilities that we’ve been to are beautiful facilities, but we have the view. I think the only other facility with a good view would be the one in Kamloops.

Larry:
Where else can you sit up in a nice warm lounge with the fireplace going, look out the windows, and watch the cruise ships go by from Alaska? We can watch humpback whales go up the passageway here as they work their way north. The ferries go back and forth, all sorts of fishing boats travel by, and the container ships and barges. It’s just a constant view of things going on. That was one of our big attractions.

Betty:
Other residents have seen whales. We have not, but we used to own a sailboat, so we saw lots of whales in our personal experience. In the summertime, somebody said that they saw the humpback whales and killer whales coming up.

Larry:
It was painless. Staff at Berwick by the Sea gave us a list of several moving companies that were recommended by them, and they had experience moving people into this particular facility. They knew what they were doing, and it was painless. It was so simple and easy.

Betty:
We got rid of quite a lot of our things. We were at a three-bedroom rancher, so we just brought the basics here, and we were ready to move in. They were on time. They had everything loaded in within an hour. Then they came here, and after lunch hour, when people could use the elevator, they moved everything in. They set up our beds, they set up the TV, and everything that we needed to have set up, they did for us.

It was the neatest move I’ve ever experienced. The guys were just incredible, and they were so helpful and considerate of us. I have to use a walker, and they were very considerate of where I was sitting and what I was doing. We were basically moved in within the hour, one hour to move from my house and one hour for them to move stuff in and get us set up.

Betty:
We feel that Berwick at the Sea is our home now. Because of COVID, we were in isolation for three and a half years, going out very little, so we were very concerned moving into this building. The staff all wore masks until the mask mandate was lifted. After that, in February, when Larry started up the shuffleboard, we started feeling at home. I immediately joined the Creative Writing group and the book club, and I met some lovely ladies and a couple of guys too. We moved in on the 1st of November, and probably by the middle of January we were getting more and more settled.

Larry:
When you move into Berwick by the Sea, I think it’s the same with all the Berwick facilities, you are assigned an ambassador. The ambassador sort of takes you under their wing, shows you how things work, the protocols, what to do, and what not to do. We had an excellent ambassador. That’s a very helpful thing. Now Betty and I are both ambassadors to pass it on.

Betty:
She’s our friend now. In this environment, you have a lot to think about. Even though it’s independent living, you’re leaving your home. We had to sell our house, so we had that to worry about too. It was a lot to think about, going from being on your own in a house to being independent but with a lot of people in the building.

Betty:
The food at Berwick by the Sea is good, the staff are wonderful, and there’s always somebody here to give you assistance. If you need assisted living, like somebody to help you with bathing, hygiene, and your pills, there’s always somebody here. Get your name on the list.

Larry:
That’s a tough one. I’ll have to think on that.

Betty:
As far as keeping us active, I think there’s everything here at Berwick by the Sea. There’s always playing cards. There’s two or three card games we would like to introduce, but we can’t find the time slot because lots of people play cards, and there are activities and bus tours. I can’t think of anything that they have not thought of.

Larry:
We probably would have put our name in earlier. We didn’t even know about the facilities until later on. It was through Betty’s relationship with some people she knew that had gone into extra living areas that we decided we would start looking at it. We were probably a little late in doing our research and could have started earlier, but it worked out for us very well. That was the only thing. I think we would have started earlier than we did, but it still worked out great.

Betty:
There are 144 residents here in Berwick by the Sea. The building is fully booked. There are no empty spaces. Book early. When we moved in, I was sitting on a chair in front of the elevator waiting for the movers to come, and a lot of people stood there and talked to me. Your picture is posted on a wall as a new resident, with a little write-up about you, so everybody knows who the new person is. We were just in awe of how friendly the residents are. Some people have health issues, but they can still make their way to say hi to you.

My advice to anybody coming in is just be prepared to have some fun and some smiles. Participate. We have lots of entertainment upstairs and sing-alongs. We have the Mennonite choir coming up at least twice a month from Black Creek, and we have people coming in to play music and sing. We have a good choir group here in the building, and there are some people taking ukulele lessons.

It’s a hard decision when you’re on your own, living in a house. You get depressed. When people come here, we try to help them, bring them around, make them happy, and make them smile. Make the move. You’re not going to be sorry. Staying at home and looking out for yourself, you get lonely and depressed. Make the move to a change.

Larry:
Book early. You’re going to move from having two or three friends to having a hundred friends.