Twenty Years at Sherwood Drive

April 1st, Nana celebrated twenty years in her apartment at 65 Sherwood Drive, Montgomery PA.  The apartments are owned and managed by Warrior Run Development in Turbotville, PA.  In 1992, when Nana's house on Melvina Street became too much for her, and for all of us kids, to take care of, she put her name on a waiting list to move to the rent-controlled Senior apartments just outside Montgomery on Rt. 405.

Waiting is not one of Nana's strong talents (mine either so I guess that's where I get that trait), so those months waiting for an apartment to become available was stressful.  When we got the call early in 1993, we were excited - until we realized we had to sell the house, and clean out all the stuff in her large 2 bedroom house so she could fit into a one bedroom apartment.  Thanks to Dick Penfield at Fish Real Estate, her house sold quickly.  It was a snowy winter and the house was sold before the snow melted the snow bank where Dick had stuck the For Sale sign.  The clean out was a long process and I remember many hours of cleaning out cupboards and boxes in the attic, deciding where to put everything that accumulated since she'd moved there in the 70's.
 
The Yoder's, who manage Warrior Run Development,  were kind enough to let us have the keys the weekend before and by April 1st Nana was settled into her new home.  Although the waiting was hard, the result was worth it.  Her apartment is on second floor with a balcony that faces a cornfield below and and a panoramic view of the mountains, unobstructed by buildings or highways.  In the spring and summer, the mountains are lush with green and in the fall, the distant trees are awash with bright reds, oranges and yellows.  It's a view that many would pay high rent to have and Nana gets to experience it every day with a low rent that fits her tiny budget.

It's not entirely perfect.  Nana can't have her own washer and dryer and still twenty years later hates the idea of the coin-operated laundry facilities.  In the years since 2010 when she experienced three back surgeries, I do most of Nana's laundry when I visit once a month.  She fixes a tiny change purse with an abundance of quarters.  She tells me that I need to take extras because one time when she took exact change with her laundry, one of the quarters rolled under the washer and she had to go back to her apartment for another.  She's made sure that never happens to me. 

I'm grateful for how accommodating the management of the apartments are to their tenants.  When Nana had back surgery and couldn't navigate the steps anymore, I called the office and they arranged for a chair lift to be installed at no charge.  It was ready to use by the time I brought her home from the hospital.  That chair lift has allowed Nana to stay in her beloved second floor apartment and be independent.

One of the best benefits of her apartment is the free maintenance.  When something is broken or leaking, Nana does a work order and Pat the maintenance man comes to fix it.  He's a local guy who went to the same high school I did - Warrior Run High School.  I hope he never retires because Nana enjoys not only his mechanical skills but his kind manner and sense of humor. 

For twenty years, Sherwood Drive is where Nana has lived, but it's not just a place to live, it really is what Nana calls home.

Nana on her balcony in May 2011