By Joel Keller
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

When you’re living by yourself, even the smallest house can feel gigantic. But in Marilyn Ringel’s case, the house she lived in was literally huge.

“I had a three-story house all to myself for about  ten years,” she says about theresidence in Queens where she and her husband raised two kids. “It was just getting [to be] too much for me. I promised my son I’d retire and get the heck out of there.”

But three years ago when her son suggested she take a look at Cedar Crest, a retirement community in Pompton Plains, Ringel was skeptical because of retirement communities she’d seen in the past. “The brochure [would be] beautiful, and in reality it looks like Motel 6,” she jokes about her past experiences.

Skepticism proven wrong
After looking at a few  apartment homes during her tour of the campus, she excused herself and chatted up people she encountered in the clubhouses. “I figured the people who lived here knew [the real story],” she says. She used her years of sales training—she spent over 30 years selling everything from dresses to table lamps at Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s— to ease into conversations, and she ended up finding out what she needed to know.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, they all gave the place an 11. They felt very secure;  everything was taken care of; everything was new. There were a minimum of headaches. And there were a lot of activities that you could pick and  choose from,” she recalls. “It sounded like the kind of place I needed.” She signed up and moved in April of 2005.

Not too big, not too small— just right
When it came down to selecting which apartment home she wanted, she chose a one-bedroom, one-bathroom floor plan known as the Fremont. It seemed like quite the opposite of the huge house she was leaving, but that suited Ringel just fine. “I don’t need a lot of room,” she says. “I’ve got my full dining room set and most of my bedroom and living room stuff here.”