By Jacqueline Kimball
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Moving to a retirement community doesn’t mean leaving your old neighborhood behind. “At Cedar Crest we encourage people to stay or become active in our greater community as well as on campus,” says Kristin DiFidi, community services manager of the Erickson community in Pompton Plains, N.J.

Actually, she says, “For some people this could be the first time in years they don’t have day jobs and actually have the time to volunteer in local schools, shelters, soup kitchens, town councils, on elections day working the polls, or at hospitals. And now they don’t have the burden of maintaining a house.”

A 1997 study conducted by California State Universtiy of people who live  alone at retirement communities found that maintaining their friendship ties with people living outside the communities was as important as strengthening friendship ties within.

Friends forever
Contact with forever friends needn’t even be face-to- face. Phone calls, e-mails, even thinking about confiding in friends has a positive effect on one’s well-being and state of mind.

Edie Hunt, who lives at Cedar Crest, could be a poster girl for the Cal State study. Her bubbly personality might result from the friendships she keeps with folks in her hometown of Wyckoff. She says they’ve helped her navigate life’s ups and downs.

Hunt belongs to a women’s club, a seniors group, the Pieceful Scrappers quilting group, and multiple other organizations in and around Wyckoff.

She refused to sever those connections when she moved to Cedar Crest even though it presented a not-so-small hurdle: Traveling between Cedar Crest and Wyckoff meant driving the interstate, and Hunt was a back-roads driver.

But friendships and spunk prevailed. Hunt has averaged twice-weekly trips for nearly two years now. “My friends are the reason I go back,” she says. “Don’t let a 20- or 25-minute trip deter you. I do it, and I love it.”