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https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2025/jul/11/seniors-retirement-cohousing-community>
"Earlier this year, Angela Maddamma, 72, loaded all her belongings into her
car. She drove from a house in suburban Richmond, Virginia, where she had lived
for 20 years, to her new life about five hours west, in a senior cohousing
project called ElderSpirit.
Cohousing communities are “thoughtfully designed neighborhoods with private
homes” arranged around common areas, where people may gather and build
relationships with their neighbors, according to the Cohousing Company design
firm. Cohousing is typically multigenerational – of the roughly 170 total
cohousing units in the US, most are home to people of all ages, from young
families to seniors. But about 12 are senior-specific.
After retiring last fall, Maddamma came across the concept of senior cohousing
online. She liked the sound of ElderSpirit, a collective of 29 individual units
and a common house surrounded by garden paths, which was near enough to visit.
What she saw was not – as her friends and family asked afterward – some kind of
cult or commune. “It’s your average 55 and older community, where you’re living
independently” in a rented or purchased unit, Maddamma says. But the members
share a “foundation of what’s important to us in our senior years, and here,
it’s mutual support” plus other values like environmental care and a broad
interest in spirituality and the “mysteries of ageing”.
“I realized that I spent a good part of my adult life searching for community,”
Maddamma says.
When Maddamma lived in the suburbs, she waved at neighbors as she came and went
to work. But she didn’t meet many people. “I had to search. I joined various
clubs; I started a book club,” she says. That helped, but it didn’t create the
proximate, tight-knit community she was really looking for – where people might
spontaneously pop by to say hello, or you could bump into a friend while going
about your day.
By contrast, the evening she arrived at ElderSpirit, the sun was setting, her
porch light was on and neighbors were waiting to welcome her with dinner. If
she was tired, she should turn off the porch light, they told her; otherwise,
people would see it and keep stopping by to greet her all evening. “That’s the
kind of community it is,” says Maddamma.
Now when I ask Maddamma if her social needs are being met, she replies: “Heck
yes.” The day we spoke, she walked the Virginia Creeper Trail with a friend,
met with other volunteers from the ElderSpirit membership committee and
finished a book. She still has plenty of time to “veg out” undisturbed at home,
which is important to her, she says.
For the growing number of people seeking out or forming dedicated senior
cohousing communities, such configurations offer a joyful and fulfilling
experience of ageing. It’s “a vastly superior way to live”, says Maddamma,
compared with alternatives such as moving into a retirement home or ageing in
place – which means staying in your own home rather than moving to a facility
or nursing home. The latter can end up being isolating, especially for seniors
who live alone and lack nearby support."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
