By Mark Abromaitis
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

“I’d say it was a move worth making,” Maris Grove pioneer Priscilla Clapp says about her decision to move to the retirement community just outside of Philadelphia. “In fact, I’d say it was the best move of my life.”

Since moving to the community, Clapp says she has overcome a few fears, made a wealth of new friends, and is enjoying every part of her day.

Clapp was the very first resident to move to Maris Grove when it opened in late 2006. Before moving, she lived in a single family home in Acton, Mass. for 58 years.

“I lived in a cul-de-sac, and I began being known as the grandmother of the neighborhood,” Clapp says with a laugh. “The neighbors were changing, and their lives were just so different from mine,” she explains. “I knew I needed something a little bit different. I didn’t have that same connection.”

Butterflies in her stomach
So she began looking at her options.

Clapp says that her sister  kept giving her positive feedback about Charlestown, another Erickson community near Baltimore, where she lives.

“Initially I thought about moving to Charlestown to be near her, but then I heard about Maris Grove,” she says. After visiting the new campus, she says, she knew it was where she wanted to be.

“Of course I was a little bit nervous. I can’t imagine anyone moving from their home, where they had lived for years, who wouldn’t be a little bit scared,” she says.

Bosom buddies
“But the employees and other new neighbors were just so kind and so helpful throughout the process,” she says. “It was a lot easier than I had imagined.”

Clapp says that since moving, she has some new additions to her life.

“Being here, I never expected to have so many friends,” she says. “It’s great. I love going to dinner every night. I love seeing my friends. I never thought I could be so content.”

Clapp says there is a group of about six ladies whom she eats with on a regular basis.