We moved in a hurry as our apartment became available very quickly and we bought it on the spot, but then had to sell our home. We did six months of renovations in three and a half weeks, then sold the house within a week!

"I never had a diary when I was at work - now I can't live without one!"

Jan: "Monday marked 15 months for us at Glenaeon. We were both 66-years-old when we made the move - we think we were right to do it a bit younger. Our only son living in Sydney has a very busy life, and we wanted to make the move ourselves rather than have him move us when we got older."

"We had grown so tired of caring for the house, the garden, the pool. We wanted to know that if anything happened to one of us, the other could easily go on."

"This apartment was an answer to our prayers. We had seen many places, but none were suitable. But in September 2006, I started to get a feeling that something would happen around Christmas. Then, at our golf and bowling Christmas dinners, friends told us of an apartment coming up at Glenaeon. I was just six steps in when I knew it was the one for us! After a second visit with my sister - who said we would be fools not to take it - we signed on. And after that, strange things started to happen: after trying to find the deeds to our family home for years, I found them within five minutes; a call to our solicitor's office over the summer break was answered when someone had just popped in for a second. There was definitely divine intervention in helping us get our dream home!"

Winston: "We moved in a hurry as our apartment became available very quickly and we bought it on the spot, but then had to sell our home. We did six months of renovations in three and a half weeks, then sold the house within a week!"

Jan: "We do feel like we have taken a lot of the burden away from our kids by emptying and selling the family home. At the same time, Glenaeon is very close to where we lived. Our doctor, our church - everything is just 10 minutes away by car."

"I love that we are not closed in. I recently had a school friends group over to the village, and they could not believe how open it all was - they thought we would be living in a box. The fact that there are no stairs in our apartment is also a big bonus. At our old place there were three stories, including 23 stairs down to the laundry, but here the laundry is just off the kitchen. And I love that the garage is connected to the house by a door - now I never get wet!"

Winston: "Before retiring, I was the CEO of the Dairy Farmers' Association. I respect good management, and it is great here. It's a little town - a warm, welcoming village."

Jan: "We do a lot of walks around the area, and I take exercise classes run by the village on Monday mornings. We are both active on the village committees - Winston runs the Resident's Bar and is on the Resident's Committee and Financial Committee, and I am on the Social Committee and help the office with the Glenaeon Gazette for the community. You can be as involved as you like, but we both believe that as younger members of the village, we should contribute more. We like all the people, everyone is friendly, everyone talks."

Winston: "It's great that we can just shut the door and go away. We recently went away for a month to visit our children and grandchildren in Lismore and Ballina - we didn't have to worry about the pool and garden like we used to."

Jan: "It's also fantastic that our grandchildren can come and stay - they even have their own Boy's Room."

"We still have a bit of a garden - I have my white lion statues that I dress up for special occasions. They are the talk of the village!

Winston: "But we still have time to get away and play golf and bowls. It's not all-consuming."

Jan: "We like all the people here. Everyone is nice, everyone talks. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have said, ‘Thank you, God, thank you so much!'"

For more information on Retirement by Design Glenaeon Village please click here.