Interview with Holland Gardens - Verve Senior Living residents, Heather and David Butters

Heather:
We’re finding that life at Holland Gardens is very active and very enjoyable. We’re doing a lot of the activities and we’re joining in a lot of the social events and the music and those kind of things and really enjoying it. We feel that our life is much fuller, wouldn’t you say?

Heather:
I enjoy the crafts and artistic events, the entertainment, and the outings we’ve had. Holland Gardens has some cute ideas. We do a horse race that’s lots of fun, and even a little bit of gambling with it too. So it’s fun. We feel as if we’re much more stimulated and just feel good about everything that we’re doing here.

David:
We enjoy the fun games too, like Bingo and Jeopardy, and things like that. It certainly exceeded your expectations…And the friendship. Oh, goodness. Ten and a half months, all kinds of friendship. The people are so wonderful, both staff and people, residents.

Heather:
The sense of community at Holland Gardens is very strong and very, very friendly, with the staff as well as with the residents. We’ve made friends with everybody. It’s been great, really has.

David:
The staff at Holland Gardens actually was one of the things that struck us when we even came to visit. It was the big difference between other places we looked at and here. People spoke to us when we came in the door and said, “Hello, how are you?” It’s a wonderful atmosphere.

Heather:
The staff are very competent and concerned with everyone’s well-being. They really are very well trained and ready to help in any way they can, as well as ready to have lots of fun with you.

David:
Very empathetic. There’re two types of staff here, there’s the activity staff and the healthcare staff, and both of them work extremely well with the residents.

Heather:
Our son and family live nearby, and that was why we moved here. We were quite a ways away from here, and everyone wondered why we would come here to Bradford, but it was because our son and family live closer to Holland Gardens.

David:
When we walked into Holland Gardens, people were so welcoming. Also, the community around it has so many things that were close by, and we didn’t want to drive anymore. So it was an ideal setup for people not driving.

Heather:
At Holland Gardens, we could get whatever we need by walking or taking public transit or a taxi, and it worked out really well

Heather:
It took a while to get ready. The downsizing is a big aspect of moving in, and I think people have to realize this and act accordingly, and to start early to really downsize and be prepared to get rid of a lot of stuff. But I found it was an interesting process. You just have to make your mind up, don’t you?

David:
Actually coming into Holland Gardens was quite easy. Everything was arranged, the room was ready, so the actual getting here was fine. The prior part [downsizing] took a while.

Heather:
Getting settled in at Holland Gardens, once we moved in, deciding where we were going to put things took some time.. But our daughter-in-law found a website where you could put the plan of your suite in and lay out furniture to know whether it’s going to fit or not. That’s a big aspect of it too, to know what to bring and whether it’s going to fit. That helped.But as far as coming here, being in Holland Gardens, it wasn’t difficult to adjust at all. It was wonderful.

David:
Holland Gardens felt like home about five minutes after we got here. From day one, the people were just wonderful.

Heather:
The next day we felt right at home, yes, Holland Gardens staff and residents welcomed us with open arms and had us come and join in things and feel a part of things right away.

David:
The first thing I would say to someone looking for a retirement community is don’t look anywhere else than Holland Gardens. But that’s up to them. If they are from Bradford or around here and family are here, they’re going to get good care with pleasant people and a lovely surrounding with all kinds of activities. Outside this place, there are places to shop, dentists, medicine, everything is here. I don’t know why anybody would look too far from here. Believe me, it’s a really nice place.

Heather:
It’s almost like they picked it up and set it down in this particular spot because Holland Gardens has everything that we could want, as far as we’re concerned anyway. There’s a library close by.

David:
We had a dentist in the first week. It took two months to get a doctor, but we have a doctor now.

David:
I would say we haven’t encountered any challenges at Holland Gardens. We seem to have gotten acclimatized very easily, and anything we’ve asked for, they’ve done for us. So I would say no challenges, particularly.

Heather:
I had some dietary challenges. I have three different major allergies, and that was not a problem at all. Holland Gardens was able to deal with it and they were able to give me the food that I needed, because that was one big concern that we had when we were coming. I was concerned about the food and how I was going to manage because at home we had to buy everything special in certain areas. It’s been looked after here just great.

David:
I eat much more now than I ever did. As far as types of food, it expanded my horizon.

David:
Maybe downsize even sooner if we knew we were going to go. The downsizing was the tricky part, and knowing what to get rid of and how much memorabilia you need to take as opposed to what you actually need. The other thing that I would do if I was recommending it to somebody is look first to see if there’s something nearby that you can walk to comfortably and safely, because I think you do need to. We didn’t do that as soon as we would have liked, because as soon as we saw Holland Gardens, then we were sold on it.

Heather:
We realized what the advantages of this particular place, Holland Gardens, were far greater than the others that we’d looked at and could see the downfall in the other retirement places.

David:
I think we actually maybe looked further afield from where we were living, because coming out this far away, we actually found what we wanted. I don’t think we ever would have found something like Holland Gardens where we were. But downsizing, that’s the trick.

Heather:
I don’t think there’s anything else that we would have done differently. If we really, really consider the fact that this is another phase in our life. It’s like, you know, you’re a teenager, you grow up, you take a job, you have a family, you become a senior, you retire. But women don’t really retire. If they’re living in their own home, they’re still doing the work, they’re still cooking, they’re still cleaning, they’re still running a household. Whereas coming here, we finally get a chance to retire, and it is a different phase in our lives. I think the men sometimes have a more difficult time accepting the fact that they’re not doing anything anymore, particularly to do with a home. But that’s all right. That’s great. It’s wonderful. Learn to relax and enjoy life. I think we’re entitled to that.

David:
When you’re looking for a retirement home, look for something that is close to your family, because I think it helps to have loved ones nearby. Don’t live in the past, but go to your new place looking forward to the future. Don’t fret the small stuff. Just because you no longer can do one thing, do something else. That’s my advice.

Heather:
Embrace this new style of living and enjoy your life for what it is, because it’s wonderful. It really is. It’s just a great way of living and you can enjoy it. I think that many people come into retirement communities and they’re so stressed by it that their health declines as a result. It’s not the fact that they’ve come to this other place and they’re not being looked after. I think it’s because they can’t accept it themselves. They really should.

David:
One of the best things about Holland Gardens are the people you meet. We have more friends here than we ever had in an apartment building where we were living. We have as much freedom here as we had anywhere else. You can do what you want. You can join in or you don’t.

Heather:
You don’t have to, but it’s better if you do. It’s more enriching for you if you do join in.