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NEWSLETTER
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Changes in Life By Willard J. Hertz
At 88, Will Hertz, an editor of the newsletter, moved into a new life style that he documents movingly here. It’s an insightful and encouraging story that surely is relevant to other LAFF members who would like to share their new starts, whenever they may have occurred since leaving the Foundation. We’d like this to be a regular feature of the newsletter, so we encourage members to contribute to it.
I want to report a major change in my residence and life style. Remember the days when old folks moved in with the family? There now is a better way for those who are ready and willing: independent living in a retirement community.
After losing Annette three years ago, I attempted to carry on as a solo act. I stayed in the house overlooking the water in Yarmouth, Maine, and continued my busy life of writing concert program notes, sitting on boards and editing the newsletter of LAFF. But, despite the continuing affection of friends, family and neighbors, it was a lonely existence, particularly at meal time when Annette and I talked—and talked—and talked. I craved a human voice to go with my pasta.
So in September I sold the house and moved into the Thornton Oaks retirement community in nearby Brunswick. What a change! It’s run like a club. Each of us has a two- or three-bedroom suite, beautifully furnished, with dinners together in the dining room. It’s a lively bunch. Because of its proximity to Bowdoin College it has a high quotient of retired academics, not just from Bowdoin but from campuses around the country. There is a rewarding series of side activities, including lectures by residents and guests and a bus to musical and theatrical performances in Brunswick and nearby Portland. And I lit the Hanukkah candles as I did every December at the Ford Foundation.
I am giving pre-concert lectures before we leave for the Portland Symphony and Midcoast Symphony concerts and expect to do that in the summer months for the Bowdoin International Music Festival. And I’m thinking about a lecture on Beethoven’s deafness—its causes and effects and the way he handled such a crippling disability.
I took a two-bedroom suite in order to use the larger bedroom as my office. Here I have my shelves of CDs, musical scores and reference books as well as my computer stand and filing cabinets. I need all this for my continuing program-note writing for ten concert organizations in Maine, Massachusetts and Westchester County in New York—a workload of about fifty concerts a year.
Finally, I have a girl friend! Yes, at the ripe old age of 88. She is a retired professor of French and international relations from Berkeley, from an old French-landed family and with a sometimes challenging French accent. And she lives down the hall.
The hardest adjustment for me was living exclusively with old folks. I had lived all my life with younger people—from children through young 30s and middle-age to gray-haired maturity. But some of these seniors are fascinating. My companion, for example, was in the French resistance as a teen-ager and was given a medal by the French government for her contributions to French-American relations.
This was the right move at the right time. I recommend this style of life to those in their senior years who feel the need for a change, dinner companionship and someone else to mow the lawn and shovel the snow.
I suggest, though, that you recruit family help for the difficult and emotionally wrenching task of selecting which of your lifetime possessions to take to your new home. You won’t have much room and wall space. I gave most of my furniture to grandchildren setting up new homes within rental-truck distance, and contributed the bulk of my books to a community library for resale. And I made daily runs to the local Good Will collecting station. But I took with me the music-related possessions and the art and handicrafts to make my apartment a personal retreat.
And I would urge you to select a retirement haven in a college community. And one convenient to an airport for visits to family and friends. I’m going to spend nine days in February in London with son, Alan, and his family, enjoying London’s lively theater and music. And to refresh my memories, I will return, as I always do, to Churchill’s preserved underground war headquarters a block from Downing Street.
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