By Setarreh Massihzadegan
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Amid the fanfare of sea animals, celebrity speakers, and giant health displays at AARP’s Life@50+ convention in Boston, people from around the country came to hear more about Erickson communities like Brooksby Village in Peabody.

“She described it very well, I’m so glad we stopped,” says Betty Peterson of Morrisville, Pa., on her way from a discussion with one of Brooksby’s staff members.

Attendees on fact-finding mission
Plenty of passersby stopped at Erickson’s booth to ask questions about life at the retirement communities or just to say hello and tell the staff about their friends who are happily living at one of the communities around the country.

Erickson staff members at the convention answered some of the most typical questions regarding the retirement communities, and most attendees seemed impressed with what they heard.

Peterson and her husband had visited one of Erickson’s campuses in their neighborhood to visit friends and shop around for their own retirement.

Betty Peterson said they were pleased with the community’s atmosphere. “It was just last Saturday we went to have dinner,” Peterson says of Ann’s Choice in Warminster, Pa. “I love the fact that there’s a pub outside the restaurants—it was so lighthearted.”

‘I’m ready to move out’
P.L. from Framingham, Mass., had taken a look at both Brooksby and Linden Ponds, an Erickson campus in Hingham.

“I went to both communities and I’m ready to move out,” she says. “It seemed everybody had a smile on their faces, particularly the people who work there.” When a pair of women asked Brooksby’s Associate Director of Marketing Danielle Baldassare what sort of special assessments they would have to undergo, they were shocked when Baldassare answered, “No special assessments!”

“Wow,” was the response from the two women.