Interview with Courtyard Gardens - Verve Senior Living resident, Eva Difonzo

First of all, I have to say I’ve got my two daughters who both live about 10 minutes away. That is the most important thing because they keep me happy and they do everything for me.

I’ve met a lot of nice friends at Courtyard Gardens. Another thing I’m doing, if you want to know what I do to make myself happy, is I am now doing the recycling. I do a lot of recycling here for one of the ladies who used to work here, and she gives all the money to a school program. We’re getting better all the time. We’re really collecting a lot of the stuff here, which would go in the garbage. That’s another thing that’s kept me very busy and makes me feel useful.

The food is delicious. You don’t lose weight, you gain weight. And all the people who work here are very polite and try to make us comfortable.

I like crossword. I like trivia. I’m not too interested in any of the sports things. I’m getting too old for that. But I do try to go to all those kinds of programs at Courtyard Gardens. If we have resident meetings where we can make suggestions, I make sure I go to those.

Everybody tries to be friendly. I’m an ambassador at Courtyard Gardens, so I try to be friendly with everybody too. If I see somebody new, I approach them and introduce myself and ask them if they need any help, I could help them.

One thing I have found is that lately, the people here who are coming maybe have more health issues than they had before. When I first came here, I noticed that there weren’t as many wheelchairs, walkers, and dementia. I find that that’s getting a little more here. But I guess we’re all getting older.

The staff at Courtyard Gardens is wonderful, especially the girls in the dining room. Some of them have been here over 30 years, and they just know exactly what you want. They know your name and you don’t even have to tell them what you want. They know. I worry because they can’t stay here forever. There are quite a few of them who have all been here for quite a while, but they’re wonderful.

The dining room staff work very hard to keep us happy. They deal with a lot of people who need extra help. With the walkers, they have to make sure they go and get the walker so the person can leave the table. They have a lot of extra things to worry about, but they do it very nicely and kindly.

My daughters looked at Gilmore but Paula [one daughter] didn’t think that was good enough for us [because it is independent living only - ed.] . We needed more help. We came to Courtyard Gardens, and we liked it, and we were lucky that we got a room very quickly. Ever since then, I’m quite happy.

I love the location here because I feel that we’re not crowded in with high-rises. It’s open. We have the community centre across the street. We have the fire truck that’s only five minutes away. We have the hospital that’s very nearby. So location, location, location. We just had a fire drill the other day, and the fire truck is only five minutes away, which is important. When people are touring, I always tell them it is very important to have your family close by. My daughters call me in the daytime, and it just makes my day a lot better.

The moving process at Courtyard Gardens couldn’t have been better. We sold our house, and it was going to be empty for three months. Brenda went to stay there for the three months. Her husband worked at Habitat and had a truck. They slowly cleaned out my house. They managed to get rid of everything.

When the day came that we had to move here, her husband wrapped up all my furniture. It all came to Courtyard Gardens. They all helped. It couldn’t have been better. I must say, we were so blessed. They all helped, and they got us all settled. No problem.

I had to deal with my husband. We were there, the whole family, February to April. We spent every day there with them. After that, then I started to fit myself in at Courtyard Gardens.

I like the location, and I like the size of it. It’s not a big place. It’s not a high-rise. I like the fact that it’s lower. I like the entrance because it’s so open. Other ones, you have to park on the street to visit. I’ve got a parking spot. I pay for a parking spot for my girls when they come here. They take turns.

I just like the atmosphere at Courtyard Gardens. I’ve been to other places to visit and have lunch there, but somehow this is more cozy for me. I don’t like high-rises.

They’re always improving at Courtyard Gardens. They’re always making improvements here. I get my room cleaned once a week. They feed me well. We have open meetings that if we’re not happy, we voice our opinions. So they know what we are concerned about.

A lot of it depends on your circumstances at the time. My husband must have known he wasn’t well, and he’s a planner. Other than that, if he was okay, we would have stayed longer at our house. So a lot depends on what’s happening. Some have to go because one gets dementia or is not feeling well. With us, it was just that he wasn’t feeling well, and we knew we had to go.

We lived so far away from our girls, in Vancouver. It was important that we should come to Courtyard Gardens, closer to them. That made all the difference in the world. 

I just feel that I was so lucky that everything happened the way it happened. It was just so smooth, like clockwork. I just can’t get over how lucky we were. It just makes me feel so good that it happened the way it did happen.

That’s quite hard because a lot depends on their family. Some people have families that are so far away. That’s quite personal. Everybody’s different.

I’ve seen people at Courtyard Gardens where sometimes one wants to come, and the other doesn’t want to come. But with us, it was just mutual. Family makes a big difference. If you’ve got that kind of help, you’re lucky.

I see so many of them here that do it all on their own, and it’s not easy. A family had just moved in recently and they’ve got a lovely, lovely family. I could just see that the mother and dad are so fortunate. You could just tell the people who are lucky that they have that kind of a family. Other ones, due to circumstances, they live far away and what can they do? So they have to do it on their own.