What I discovered after moving to The Fountains

When I moved to The Fountains I was surprised to discover that so many of my fellow residents had participated in World War II. I think of WW II as the war of my parents' generation; my father, my wife's father, and my mother's brothers were all actively involved in the war. Kathy and I knew we would be the youngest Fountains residents at the time we moved in, but we did not expect to feel as though we were an entire generation younger than the residents we were joining. It was a very unsettling experience.

A second thing I discovered when I moved here was how active my fellow residents in their 90's and late 80's were able to be. My parents, and most of their friends, died before reaching the age of 90, and generally had serious health issues by their mid-80s. Before I moved to The Fountains I had believed that life after about 85 was not worth living. I was seriously shocked to discover the actual ages of many of the enthusiastic, active people I met here. I now no longer feel that I must be in the last decade of a life worth living!

Written as an assignment for the writers' group at The Fountains in March 2017 on this topic.