Residents and friends, Donna and Ellen join us for a casual chat about their decision to move to The Lakeside at Amelia Island and how they spend their days inside and around the community they call home.
Video Transcript
Chris
Well. Hey, everybody. Welcome to Senior Living Live. My name is Chris and I am hosting today here at the Lakeside at Amelia Island. We're in a nice quiet model apartment in the independent living neighborhood. And I am joined with Donna and Ellen. And they are friends and they're members of the community here, and they live here. And so welcome.
Chris
Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. So happy to see you. And, you know, on this beautiful day here in sunny Florida. So tell me a little bit about yourself. What what brought you to the community? And, you know, are you married or what?
Ellen
No, I lost my husband eight years ago and I we built a house here on the river 30 years ago and loved it. And when he passed away, I remained there. But when you live in a house and you've got gardens and lawns and a dock and a boat, it's kind of hard.
Chris
A lot to take care of.
Ellen
A lot to take care of. So I decided that probably I was going to live there forever. Loved, loved the house. It was just for us. It was just everything that we wanted for ever. And one day I decided it was just too much. So I. I investigated a few other places, but I never went to any of them.
Ellen
But I came to Lakeside the first time, and that day I decided that this was going to be my home.
Chris
Decided it would work for you.
Ellen
Yes. Yes. And I'm very happy.
Chris
And Donna, it's the same question. How did you arrive here at the community?
Donna
Well, we used to live here in Fernandina 40 years ago. Okay. So in the interim, then we moved around quite a bit and we were living in the villages and we've been there almost 20 years. And so we just learned about this concept of independent living, having independent houses. And we still have friends from when we lived here 40 years ago.
Donna
So we would be sitting there and they brought us over and we kind of took a tour around the whole place and they have cottages and a separate area of 28 houses I think it is. And then we let it go. And months later we were back up here again and then we were deciding that maybe it's time that we make a change.
Donna
And so if it didn't have the houses and whatnot, we wouldn't be here. But for us it works.
Chris
It was important to you to move into that. The house, the house kind of environment? Right. And you live an apartment here in the community. Okay. Okay. So you two are your friends and you?
Donna
Well, it's been some last. She's only been here, what, six months? Okay, so we met along. That was very outgoing. So we met on the dining room. And I have a very friendly husband, so he and I don't know whether it was in the dining room or whatever or cocktail hour, but. Yeah.
Chris
But there's opportunities to meet people and yes.
Ellen
Very much so.
Chris
Yeah. I've always heard that in talking with with residents in the communities that they appreciate that of just being able to socialize and have these happy hours and dining times and things. So what are some of the activities that you do in the community and things? What do you do to stay busy?
Ellen
Well, they keep us pretty busy here. We have the silver, silver sneakers in the morning, three days a week, and then two days a week. They have the stretch and exercise and it just it helps everyone. And we have a good, loyal class of people every day. And on Thursdays, which was today, they we do a walking and we walk almost to the beach and it's it's great.
Ellen
We pass a little park area and we walk around in the park area and then we come back. We head back. But they they do keep us busy here. There's I mean, it's a very social group and everybody knows each other. I mean, even though the people that work here, they all know our name and that's wonderful.
Ellen
It was probably hard for them, but it was hard for us to remember everybody. And it's just it just looks like New Year's Eve. We had a party and it was just probably the first year in several years that we didn't just have a big blast, but we did this year we went we all went to dinner and not a lot of dressed up for New Year's and we had dinner, we had cocktail hour, we had dinner, and then after dinner we went to the bistro and they had a band and we had the best time.
Chris
And you ring in the New Year, you stayed all the way to midnight?
Donna
No, no. 9:00. Okay.
Ellen
Yeah, that was pretty.
Chris
I think I was in bed at eight, so don't worry.
Ellen
But it was a fun evening. And people danced and they sang and they had hats and whistles and it was just a fun evening.
Chris
Oh, it sounds like it. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Ellen
It was a great evening. Everybody had fun. And it was just fun to see everybody having a good time because, you know, when you look around, you think they probably would have been home and been in bed 8:00 when they were having fun.
Chris
Yeah. What are some of the things that you do to stay active around the community?
Donna
Well, I'm not a morning person, so I don't get up for the morning exercises, but I do get up on Wednesday and Thursday for our I do what I call a class and a watercolor class and they've got us an instructor and once in a while now. So that kind of is something that we in the art class appreciate and well, I don't know, time just goes by fast and we still have other friends on the island, so we don't do everything here, but we do quite a bit here.
Chris
I think that's an important point because it's not like your your life doesn't stop when you move to a place like this. You can continue kind of doing keeping your own preferences and how you how you want to do things.
Donna
And there's groups in the neighborhood that have become groups and go to dinner together and whatnot. And it's flexible. I mean...
Ellen
We go to the movies.
Donna
And they play bingo on Fridays and I have up and go on next to a certain group of people who go. About 21 or 22 people going, So that's kind of... from bingo you got a happy hour from happy hour to dinner from dinner to bed.
Chris
And it just seems like there's always there's always activity in this community. I walk in and there's always people greeting each other and having conversations and little pockets of people having, you know, talks and coffee. And it's always nice to see.
Ellen
We have a flower arranging class, I think twice a month. And there we have a great instructor and they're real flowers and we get to take them home and they're always very pretty.
Chris
Yeah. Oh, that sounds fun. That's it. And that was something that struck me. I was talking with Linda, the executive director the other day, and she talked about how there's I think she mentioned like a crocheting class or club or something like that. And but the only reason that that exists is because there are people who live here who want to do that.
Chris
They don't just have these activities for no reason. It's to try to cater to the likes and dislikes of everyone who lives here. So it seems to be flexible to me. So you came from you. So you came from the villages, which is kind of like a 55 plus starting community. And you've lived there for a while and you came from from a house just here on the island.
Ellen
On the river.
Chris
On the river. And so there's there's people from, you know, all around from I know people have moved here from, you know, the northeast of the country. A lot of people from the Atlanta area, others in Jacksonville and things. And so if if someone is just starting out in their journey of looking into a community like the lakeside at Amelia, what advice would you give them when they're looking?
Chris
You know, if they if they don't know anything about this, what would you say to them?
Donna
Do your homework. Compare. You need to check out whether it's your own doing a monthly rental or a lot of the places that you go to our buy in. And you sort of need to decide with what works best for you. And you usually do that with a financial advisor. But yeah, definitely.
Donna
And like I said, we were just intrigued with having a house we didn't want. We're not ready for an apartment yet. We may be sooner than we think.
Chris
Well, and without a deciding factor for you that there are apartments available should you need it in the future.
Donna
Yeah, there's. But my son and I were just talking because he just got back from China and he's been over there for five years. And, you know, he was asking me some questions and I said, it depends on circumstances. You know, I don't know. I have a daughter in Woodinville, Washington and my son won't be here.
Donna
So but yes, if the circumstances are right and something happened to Rick, I would probably look into moving into an apartment. A house would be one too expensive.
Chris
And what you got.
Donna
To do, you do have flexibility. And I really don't have a thought about assisted living, but it's there if we want it or if we need it.
Chris
To have those options. Yeah, that's that's nice. Any advice for for folks looking in communities like this?
Ellen
Well, like she said, do your homework. I there's many places that have just different... When I when I saw this, it was just so bright and pretty and the management, they takes such beautiful care of this place. The landscaping is very nice. They keep up with it and I was impressed. You know, we've got a fireplace in the lobby that's always going to keep us warm, even though it's a place hot in Florida.
Ellen
It was has been a little chilly of late. So and they do accept pets. And had I have not accepted pets, I wouldn't be here. I've got two dogs and she has one Tebow and so we they socialize also and we've seen everybody outside and it's just fun. Everybody loves the dogs name They might not know who you are, but they know your dogs.
Chris
They know you as Tebow's mommy. Is that helping?
Donna
Yes. Yes. And that's Tebow's house. It's not our house when we go by. Yeah, but yeah, he's a good dog in the neighborhood accepts him everywhere we’ve been.
Chris
Oh, that's so nice. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and talking about your experiences here and and sharing. So we're so happy to have you. Yeah, absolutely. And so for those of you who are watching online, if you want to know more about the Lakeside at Amelia, you can find out more on their website.
Chris
At Lakeside, Amelia dot com And for more shows like this we've got senior living live dot com where you can learn more about senior living and the process and journey of moving into a community. Until next time I am Chris have a great day.
