I have been a resident of the serviced apartments at Jenny MacLeod Retirement Village since September 2023. Recently I found myself wondering if I was still as enthusiastic about living here as I was when I first made the decision to move into the village.
Like many people of my age I decided, after my wife's passing, that I wanted to remain living in the home that my wife and I had shared for the greater part of our married life together. Eventually my decreasing physical condition and managing the upkeep of our home became too much for me to handle. The house's unique location on a battle-axe block was also causing a lack of regular contact with my neighbours and the outside world. I finally realised that I needed to look for an alternative that offered both ease of living and regular social contact with other people. That's when I started looking at retirement villages.
Following research into the various retirement village options available to me, and after listening to recommendations of associates who had relatives or friends already living here, I chose to take up residency in Jenny MacLeod Village.
Newer, more recently developed retirement villages offer features such as swimming pools, bowling greens, tennis courts etc, none of which I would use. Jenny MacLeod does not offer such facilities but neither does it charge the astronomical entry fees that some of those newer villages do. What it does offer is a safe, secluded environment that concentrates on the value of social interaction. I also personally found the buyback options on departure and ongoing monthly service fees to be reasonable. The monthly service fee includes all meals and daily morning teas, laundry, all power charges including 24/7 availability of personally controlled air conditioning in your apartment, weekly cleaning of your apartment, daily access to a registered nurse on weekdays plus 24/7 access to a nursing assistant at other times, availability of a personal alarm system and access to numerous social activities. In my situation the service fee has been offset to a large extent by the fact that my weekly supermarket shopping costs me considerably less than it used to. It now usually involves only a few items of a personal toiletry or household cleaning nature.
One other feature I find appealing at Jenny MacLeod Village is the availability of onsite accommodation for visiting family members or friends. Most of my family live at distant locations from me and it is comforting to know that they can remain close to me during any visit they might make by choosing to make use of the village's guest room at rates which are about half the cost of those offered by any local hotel or motel.
I feel I have benefited personally because of the move into the apartments - in more ways than one. I've made several new friends, and the friendliness and acceptance offered to me by my fellow residents have made the settling in to my new life a much easier task. I've even been able to take up a new hobby of painting which is something I could never find time for in the past.
Am I still happy to have chosen Jenny MacLeod Village as my place of residence? I CERTAINLY AM!! So far, I haven't found any reason to regret having made the move.
Ray McDowall
Jenny MacLeod Serviced Apartment Resident
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If you would like to find out more about our independent living villas or serviced apartments, please call us on (02) 4951 6637.
Jenny MacLeod Retirement Village | 48 Victory Parade, Wallsend, NSW
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