I’m Jeremy Davenport, most of my friends call me Jerry. I’ve been at Magnolia Gardens now for 10 months and I am really starting to feel at home here.
Let me just tell you about some of the things that make it home. And I would say probably the biggest thing is they really great staff. We’ve got people who take care of us and love us and give us attention and don’t take us terribly seriously, but by golly, it makes you feel at home.
People often ask us and ask me when I’m away uh, what’s the food like there, Jerry, and I have to tell you, in the 10 months I’ve been here, I will be really honest, I have actually only had to make one complaint. They have a genius down there who absolutely knows how to make soups, wow! And there’s another genius there who cooks prawns like it was a restaurant. Anyway, I could go on and on, but no meals are great, and the serving staff just can’t look after you well enough.
I should start out by telling you I’m 88, getting perilously close to 89; I spent 25 years serving Canada in the Army. In 1980, I retired as a major and came out here to back out to BC. I went into business for a few years the company I worked for decided to move to the other end of the country, so I stayed here and went to work for the governor of Canada until my retirement. Retirement was a wonderful time for me and for me that was opportunity to get into volunteerism to get into working with my favorite hobbies and best of all spending a lot of time with my wife traveling around around North America.
We were married for 64 years, and I’m sorry to say she passed from complications from dementia, so the last couple of years were kind of a challenge for both of us and for the family. My last year alone I was finding that would increasing age my ability to do the upkeep of the property to do the cooking and cleaning and the shopping and stuff for myself I thought there was a better way that I could live.
And I really I discussed this in a lot of detail with my two daughters, who are very close, and we came to the conclusion that either assisted living or independent living or some form where I could live amongst other people and cut down the amount of the actual burden on myself would probably be a good idea. Somebody suggested why don’t you just go and have a look at Magnolia Gardens, as it turned out, here, I am a damn good choice, and I’m doing well and enjoying it.
I’ve always been a gardener, and even here at Magnolia Gardens, I can go out there with a couple of big flower barrels, and I can plant my little mini garden in the spring look after it during the year and hopefully make it a pleasant site for the folks who come and visit our fine abode here.
The other hobby which I’ve had lifelong is bird watching. We call it birding these days. And so we started a little club here at Magnolia Gardens, and with half a dozen of my fellow residents, we maintain some bird feeders. We go around on short bird-watching trips, and we can hardly wait for the next time we get out and go and check out the local birds.
So life at Magnolia Gardens has been both been rewarding and pleasant for me. I do participate in the many activities which are offered here, and by golly do we ever have a lot of activities. I like to keep my brain fairly active, so I’m right up there first thing in the morning playing trivia playing, whatever mind games that our really excellent staff here. Our entertainment and program staff just have so many programs available for us. And then there’s always a fitness program, so three times a week fitness, the other days we go for walks.
It makes life so easy for us, you know, and then all of a sudden you find you’re making friends with these folks, not just the residents, but you’re making friends with the staff, and you know that makes life here so easy.
Comments