Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Pilgrim Haven residents participate in a drama class last week. The Los Altos-based community celebrates its 50th anniversary party Thursday.
Town Crier Staff Writer
Elder community in Los Altos celebrates 50 years of service
No cooking. No cleaning. No worries. The sidewalks are clean, the flowers tended, the cottages cozy. Sound like an ideal existence? According to the seniors who live at Pilgrim Haven Retirement Community, life is all that - and more.
"I haven't scrubbed a floor in eight years!" said Esther Ryan, 78, sounding delighted.
Like most seniors, Pilgrim Haven residents each have made a choice about where and how they want to spend their future. Joy Morin, 80, used to work at Foothill College. She explained why she and her husband decided to sell their home: "It got difficult for my husband to keep up with the gardening and repairs. It was getting to be too much."
Moving to a retirement community is a lifestyle change. Residents may have moved from a four or five bedroom home into a two-bedroom cottage. It's a move of trust, because they are committing to a community in which they will most likely spend the rest of their lives.
But it's a lifestyle that doesn't lack for much. In fact, most Pilgrim Haven residents feel that their choice has provided them with more options than their former lifestyles.
Local instructors bring adult education courses to Pilgrim Haven, offering everything from tai chi to travelogues to current events.
Residents draw on the pool of talent within their own community, too. One retired teacher recently started weekly sculpting classes.
Drama students rehearse twice a week for the two or three large shows staged each year.
Events are varied and frequent. Last week, residents enjoyed a luau, complete with hula dancers. Pilgrim Haven's 50th anniversary party is Thursday and features a dance band and buffet for 300. Then, the annual Halloween costume parade comes next month.
Every level of health care is available, and residents support and help each other through both happy and sad times.
Gertrude Koehler, 98, recently took a fall and broke her hip. She's in the Pilgrim Haven skilled nursing facility until she recovers. "But she's already planning her escape - she'll be walking again soon," according to Esther Mort, 88.
Esther Ryan said, "I lost my husband three years ago, and I don't know how I would have handled it had I been in a home alone, and having to go through selling it and doing all these things."
With the basic needs of home, meals, health care, and property maintenance covered, the people in this residential community are carefree. And that's the best kind of life there is.
Pilgrim Haven is located at 373 Pine Lane in Los Altos. For more information, call 948-8291.