“I was thinking of the future when we bought here, but actually, we’re really enjoying the present.”
Margaret, homeowner
Cast off the worries of maintaining a family home and enjoy life
Joan and her husband Bill wanted to have more freedom without the worries of maintaining a six bedroom, family home.
“The fact that it was a large house, the fact that it needed repairs. We had a bout of burglaries locally… and that becomes a big worry when you’re elderly. We found that we were wondering if we should answer the door if the doorbell rang late in the evening, little niggling things like that.
“We were aware that there were two people in this huge house and was that fair when you’ve got young families who are house hunting. We moved in with our young family (our youngest was three when we moved in) and we were in that house for 46 and a half years.
“We also have a rather unusual situation in that our three children all live abroad so we haven’t got the support that a normal family would have, which was an added reason for considering this move.”
Joan and Bill’s daughter lives in New York, their first son lives in France and their younger son lives in Melbourne in Australia.
“The joy is, we go over there for five weeks rather than the odd day, so it’s really lovely.
But we haven’t got their support here. If anything desperately bad happened they would be here in next to no time but it’s that day-to-day contact with them we haven’t got.
“When we announced that we were thinking about this, there was a big hooray from our children.
I think it took a bit of worry off their shoulders. They were thrilled with that decision.
“I think I was more keen to move than Bill. Bill isn’t as fit as I am, and it was becoming my responsibility to make sure that everything was okay. I noticed the guttering, for example, and then if anybody needed to go up a ladder, it would be me. That sort of thing.
“I was the one who pushed hard to move, but actually when he saw the place and we sat down together and talked about it carefully and went into all the pros and cons, he agreed with me. And since he’s been here, he says it’s the best thing we ever did. This has worked out very well for us.
“It was absolutely the right decision. You walk out of your apartment and you’ll find within seconds, somebody to chat to and there’s nothing better than that is there?
Just having a good old gossip!
“Here, you can have your privacy. You have your own apartment. You can stay there whenever you want to and you can be on your own… but you also have the alternative, if you want it. I think having that choice is such a big thing. You can have one choice one day and the other choice the next day. It’s a perfect situation. I can highly recommend it.”
“You’ve got lots of people around, lots of activities, lots of fun.”
Scan the QR code to listen to Joans story
“I’d say to anybody thinking about moving to a retirement community, if you’re going to think of it at all in the future, do it now. Don’t wait. You want to enjoy the facilities that are available while you’re still able to. We love it here.”
Simply lock-up, leave and have more time to explore
Before moving to The Woodlands, Margaret and John had lived in their family house for 47 years. They decided to move to a retirement community whilst they are relatively young, to future-proof their later life.
Margaret said: “We’d lived in our house for 47 years and had spent a lot of money on it. It was a three-doublebedroomed detached house with a fairsized garden. We’d had three or four kitchens and bathrooms refitted and I’d reached the point where I thought ‘I’m not prepared to spend any more money on this house’ because we wouldn’t get it back. It was 62 years old, so it was going to need a new roof and pointing. We were already paying for a gardener. I just didn’t want the hassle of it all. It was a burden for me, worrying about it.
“I’m losing my sight. I could have gone round my other house with my eyes closed. I knew it very well. But it was a big house and there were stairs and all the repairs. I didn’t want all of that. So, I need to get settled and get familiar with my surroundings because I never know when my sight’s going to go. That’s the reason that we did it at 74 and 71, when we’re relatively young, but I’m thinking ahead.”
John said: “Originally, I was a bit apprehensive about moving. I just said let’s leave it for five years. I now think, having done the move, that we did it at the right time.”
Margaret said: “I was thinking of the future when we bought here, but actually, we’re really enjoying the present. The people are such good company. We have a great community. Everyone helps and supports each other, and we all get on very well.”
Margaret and John have always enjoyed travelling the world from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and India to Africa, America and the Caribbean.
Margaret said: “I’ve got age-related macular degeneration and I’ve had it for a long time. About 16 years, so I had it quite young really. There is no cure for it. You don’t know when you’ll lose your sight. It could be tomorrow, or it could be in 10 years.
“We’ve travelled a lot and made sure that we’ve seen everything we want to see. We recently came back from a cruise on the Douro, in Portugal, and we had a cruise to Iceland in June. We love travelling so the ability to lock up and leave our apartment, and not have to worry about an empty property is another benefit.”
“I’ve
got the best of both worlds with my apartment because I’ve also got all the communal areas to enjoy like the homeowners’ lounge, the coffee bar and the restaurant.”
Enjoy the best of both worlds
Bess had never considered living in a retirement community, but since moving to The Woodlands, she has been enjoying a better social life than ever before.
Bess lived in a one-bedroomed flat with two flights of stairs and no lift. She was starting to struggle to walk up stairs with her shopping.
“I’ve always been a sporty person and I thought I’d stay healthy and fit for the rest of my life. I played netball when I left school, and I played football in my 30s. Now I’ve got diabetes and osteoarthritis; I never expected all that. I’d always thought when you get to 50 or 60, the road is straight. It isn’t. Things change dramatically. Life is full of twists and turns.”
Margaret was planning to look for another flat when her friend invited her to an open day at The Woodlands. “I hadn’t ever considered moving to a retirement community. I just wanted a little private flat. I hadn’t experienced anything like this.
“My friend Margaret invited me to a coffee morning at The Woodlands and I came along, just to support her. Margaret wanted a two or three-bedroomed apartment, so they showed her these apartments and they were so nice. I was really impressed.
“I said that I was looking for a small, cosy apartment somewhere else but that I’d have a look at a one-bedroom apartment, just to see what they’re like. I walked in and looked out of the window, and onto the big balcony, and I turned to Paul, from the sales team, and said I’ll have it. He started laughing and I said, no really, I’ll have it!
“I just loved it. I walked in and all I could see was the garden and the balcony and it was exactly what I’d dreamed of having. It was absolutely lovely and from then on, life has just continued to get better.”
Over the next few months, Bess made some new friends at The Woodlands too.
“Every coffee morning they’ve had here, I’ve been there, so the team knew me very well by the time I moved in. The staff are fantastic. They go out of their way, they’re so nice, they’re just wonderful.
“It was nice because I met lots of other people who were moving in too. We all get on so well. We have a really good laugh. We all join in and help each other. It really has worked out so well. We’ve all got the same mindset. It’s super. I’ve made some good new friends as well as the good friends I already had.
“In my old flat I never saw my neighbours. I’ve definitely got a better social life now than I had before. It’s brilliant.”
Since moving to The Woodlands, Bess has been enjoying taking part in a number of activities.
“I take part in keep fit twice a week. We have coffee mornings. We have card games. Some of my neighbours are learning to crochet and we’re knitting squares to make into blankets to send to places that need them.
“An author came to give a talk the other week who was so interesting. He’d written a book about somebody in the airforce in the war. At the end of it, he gave us all a copy of his book, Airborn, and signed them. It was really interesting.
“We also had a young lady who did a 50s night, singing. She had a lovely voice and sang all the old songs from musicals. That was lovely.
“I definitely have more of an active social life now than I did before I moved here.
Where I was before nobody mixed and I didn’t see anybody. I had my personal friends who I had to go out to see or
they came and visited me but there was nothing else. Here, we’ve got a nice plan of different activities that are available on different days. I don’t always go to them all, but I go to the ones that interest me.
“If I was giving anybody advice, the main thing that I would say to somebody would be don’t leave it too late because you get to a point when you can’t face moving. I’ve got a friend who says she doesn’t know what to do because she’s in a big old house and she’s so lonely. She’s in her 80s and she says she couldn’t move now. It’s really sad.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand what retirement living communities are like. The first thing my son said when he came was it’s just like a five star hotel and my daughter said the same. It’s lovely. The staff are all really polite and helpful and they’re genuine. I wish that I’d visited a retirement community maybe five years earlier. I think if I’d have known how good life can be, I’d have moved years ago.”
A welcome change from Isolation
I’m originally from Yorkshire but I’ve lived in Blackpool for most of my life. For many years I had a medical practice and after that I was the Medical Director of the War Pensions Agency which later became the Veterans Agency.
I met my first wife, Jean, at the hospital. She was a staff nurse on one of the wards and we married and had two children. She died in 1984 when my youngest was just 13 and my eldest was 16. I spent some time bringing up the children on my own.
A few years later, I met my second wife, Mavis. When we got together, we moved back from Carleton to Blackpool, just off North Park Drive near the hospital. We had been living there together for about 35 years when she died.
From then on, I was rattling around in our five-bedroom, four reception room house on my own until I moved to The Sidings.
I think one of the big benefits of moving to a retirement community is the stimulus of other people at this time of life. If somebody has been on their own, as I know very well, you can sink into not wanting to do anything. You lose your ability to think properly, and to converse properly, and you start to go downhill.
Looking back now, I didn’t realise at the time, that’s exactly what happened to me. The stimulus of moving into a place like this can be of great benefit.
Physically it helps too. I make sure that if I can’t get out into Lytham, I do two laps of The Sidings in the morning and two laps in the afternoon. I think four laps is not much short of a mile so that’s the least that I do and when I think about it, I try to use the stairs as much as I can although I do use the lift mostly.
“If I was talking to somebody considering a move to a retirement community, I’d say that it relieves you of an enormous amount of stress and adds a lot of positive social interaction.”
I enjoy meeting new friends and socialising and not having any worries about life at all.
I think another benefit is knowing that you’re going to be safe. I think that’s a big thing for some people. Quite a few older people have very little selfconfidence left and I think that’s bolstered quite a bit by the staff here being so caring and thoughtful.
Starting a new chapter
Harry explains: “There comes a time in life when you’ve got to say, right if we don’t do something now, we won’t do it at all. Ann’s always wanted to live in Lytham because she’s from Fylde.”
Ann added: “The thing is, I don’t have any family at all, so I’ve got to be very careful when I get old not to be shut away and lonely and forgotten. I knew eventually I would want to move to this sort of environment.”
Letting go of home maintenance responsibilities also appealed to Ann.
“When you have a house, you become a servant to it. I’ve thought that many times about the house or garden. You have to do all these things to keep it sellable and up to scratch. The days come when you don’t want to have to do that sort of thing anymore. It worries you.”
Ann said: “You don’t have worries here. It’s like being on holiday all the time. I can’t get over it. It’s wonderful. It takes all that anxiety away from you.”
Harry added: “We’ve got rid of two houses and all the worry of painting and weeding the garden and all the rest of the things. It’s all done here. If anything goes wrong, we just report it and there’s somebody here within a couple of days. And there’s an on-site maintenance chap, who’s most helpful.”
Ann: “And we’ve got the gardeners. It was beautiful when it was tulip season and it’s lovely now with the hydrangeas.”
Moving to The Sidings was very much a fresh start for Ann and Harry. They decided to buy new furniture and
furnishings for their apartment, but also planned to get married on Harry’s 80th birthday. Harry said: “If we’re having a wedding, I said I want all my family there. We thought it would probably be the last time that we’ll see most of them. A friend of ours and her daughter came over for the wedding and stayed in one of the guest suites at The Sidings and my eldest boy and his wife stayed in another suite and then everybody else stayed in hotels. My half-brother, who was my best man, stayed with us in our apartment.”
In fact, Ann and Harry have continued to enjoy hosting visitors, even after the wedding and have found the Guest Suite at The Sidings invaluable. Ann said: “We’ve had more visitors since we’ve moved here than ever we had before.”
Cherish friendships old and new
Anne wanted to join a thriving community and be closer to her family in Sheffield.
Anne met her future husband, Alan, at a Wall’s ice cream factory where they both worked in the summer vacation one year.
They married in 1958 and moved to a little cottage in Glossop on the edge of the moors. The couple had two children, Sarah and Daniel, and they soon moved to a bigger house in Glossop, where they brought up their family.
In 1985, with both children away at university, Anne and Alan moved to Eyam.
“I spent 35 very happy years there with a big garden, hens to look after and when Alan was well, we did lots of travelling. Sadly, Alan died seven years ago after a few years suffering from Alzheimer’s.”
Anne continued to live in their family home in Eyam.
“I managed on my own for quite a while, but I wanted to take charge of my life. I could have moved in with one of my children, but it would have become a matter of Grandma sitting on the settee and waiting for things to happen… and I’m not quite ready for that. I’m not sure I ever will be! I wanted to keep my independence and also to keep my relationship with my children a happy one, which it is. Now we enjoy the time that we spend together.”
The UK lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 were a turning point for Anne.
“I was really not seeing anybody, living in this beautiful place, up quite a steep lane going nowhere. My friends are all abo ut
my age, so they were not walking up to see me. Also, most of the year, we hadn’t been allowed to meet anyway.
“Now that I’ve moved, I’m looking through my window across the balcony and there are all sorts of things happening. I’ve probably talked to about five people this morning; two of the managers, one of the other residents, various people in the corridors. Things are happening. It’s very much more interesting than being where I was.”
The move has given Anne a new lease of life and her family peace of mind.
“I think they’re really glad to have me here. They can keep an eye on me and don’t have to worry about me. They know if I have a fall that somebody will come to help me.
“I’ve absolutely done the right thing and probably should have done it a couple of years earlier. It’s hard to move house and the younger and more energetic you are, the better you’ll cope with it. Now that I’m here, I’m very happy. I think partly it’s because I’ve got people around me. It’s lovely to be somewhere where things are happening. I feel as if I’ve joined life again rather than being locked away from it!”
“I could have moved in with one of my children, but it would have become a matter of Grandma sitting on the settee and waiting for things to happen…and I’m not quite ready for that. I’m not sure I ever will be.”
“We knew we’d enjoy it, but we didn’t think it was going to be as good as this. It’s everything that I expected and more.”
Scan the QR code to listen to Pat and Michaels story.
The best move ever
Being surrounded by a wonderful group of friends and supportive staff has exceeded Pat and Michael’s expectations since they moved to The Woodlands.
Having spent 41 years in their family home, the couple decided to move to a ground floor apartment and to enjoy the thriving community without the worries of maintaining a big house and garden.
Pat said: “Our house was getting too big, and the cleaning was too much. It was new when we moved into it, but things needed renewing every so often. It was all just a bit too much. We had a big garden too and that was too big for us.”
Pat and Michael had almost decided to move to another Adlington Retirement Living community in Cheadle a few years previously.
Pat said: “Our good friends were going to move there but decided not to, so we started looking around at private apartments in Bramhall. I didn’t want us to be in a flat, on our own, shut off from the world and we didn’t see anything that we liked, so we forgot about it.
“Then this year, our same friends came to see The Woodlands. When they decided to buy here, they invited us to coffee mornings and a Jubilee luncheon. My husband was bowled over and he wanted to move here.”
Moving to a ground floor apartment, with no stairs and help on-hand had become more important to both Pat and Michael.
Michael said: “We had a beautiful garden and a big greenhouse at the end. I could foresee my wife going into the greenhouse and taking a tumble and going right through the glass. It was an accident waiting to happen. Also, I had been very poorly this year and wasn’t expected to live. Thankfully, I recovered and I’m here
today, but when I came home, I was in a hospital bed downstairs in our house in Bramhall with carers and nurses, and I had to learn to walk again.”
Since their move, the combination of supportive staff and lovely neighbours has made a real difference to both Pat and Michael.
Pat said: “The whole set up here is so well run. I just can’t believe how settled I feel now that we’re here.”
Michael said: “The staff are lovely and caring. I can’t speak too highly of them. They always ask if everything’s alright and if there’s anything I need. They’re all great.”
Since moving to The Woodlands, Pat and Michael have continued their active social lives.
Pat said: “It’s nice that there are all these activities going on that you can get involved with if you want to. There are just lovely things going on all the time. We have quiz nights, film nights, take-away meal nights, we bring in fish and chips.
With a combination of old friends and new, Pat and Michael have been thoroughly enjoying the sense of community at The Woodlands.
Pat said: “In a house you might not see many people whereas here if I’m busy doing jobs, Mike might just say he’s popping down to the lounge and he comes back having bumped into friends. It’s really brilliant. There’s a real sense of community. Everybody’s so nice to each other. There’s nothing I don’t like about living here.”
Explore your options
Adlington offers a new perspective in retirement living. The inspiration behind our communities is simple: to create spaces that make everyday life easier, safer and more enjoyable.
Now that you’ve heard first-hand from some of our homeowners, why not come and see for yourself. Find out more about Adlington life and have a look around our latest communities and beautiful show apartments to imagine the future you can enjoy.
When you start to explore one of our retirement communities, we can invite you to a coffee morning, arrange a private tour or book you a spot of lunch in the restaurant.
We understand that deciding where you want to move to and exactly what you’re looking for can feel a little overwhelming, particularly if you’ve been in your family home for many years.
We’re here to support you every step of the way and take the time to listen to your needs. We genuinely want to make sure you’re making the best decision for you. Our sales team can explain what is on offer and the moving process, to help you to find the right outcome and whether retirement living is right for you.
“The first thing my son said when he came was it’s just like a five star hotel and my daughter said the same. It’s lovely.”
