Wind Crest	UPDATED: Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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Three unique friends share a common future

Posted on Tuesday, May 01, 2007

By Laurie Whittier
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

When Marguriete Brooks attended Wind Crest’s ground breaking last summer, she was brimming with excitement over the vibrant future that lay ahead of her.

And when John Erickson addressed the crowd and made a friendly suggestion that prospective residents find two friends to bring along, she decided to give it a try.

As a result, Brooks and two of her closest friends—all singles—are gearing up to move to Wind Crest this fall.

A matter of convenience
Brooks says she would have moved to the community anyway, but she thought it might be even more fun to share the adventure with friends Carol Boyle and Lee-Roy Pedersen. After all, these three are used to spending a lot of time together in Aurora where they all live. Commuting back and forth to attend their regular “coffee klatches” might put a crimp in their social schedule.

How these three met and became friends is quite typical. Brooks and Pedersen met through their involvement in a roving coffee club. Brooks and Boyle met at a senior center.

“We were both in a digital camera class and Marguriete taught me more than the instructor did, so we became friends,” says Boyle, who works as a hospital lab technician and has done so for 36 years.

Boyle says she’ll retire when she comes to Wind Crest. “My body’s been thinking about retiring for some time,” she quips.

You can go home again
In addition to being drawn to Wind Crest’s vibrant lifestyle, Brooks has been longing to move back to the west side of town for years. “I worked for Jefferson County Public Schools and I lived in that area for many years. It’s beautiful,” she says.

At first, Brooks says she wasn’t sure she’d be able to afford living at Wind Crest, but she decided in April of last year to go down and find out. She was so thrilled at what she learned about Wind Crest’s features and affordability that she joined the Priority List that day. When she got home, she called Boyle, who joined about a week later.

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It didn’t take a lot of convincing for Boyle to get on board at Wind Crest—she was thrilled at the prospect of being able to swim seven days a week without having to drive to the local pool. “With all the activities available at Wind Crest, you can be as alone as you want to be or do as much as you want to do,” she says. “It’s like a cruise ship.”

The right decision—at the right time
Pedersen was intrigued by the idea, but he needed a little more time to decide whether it was right for him.

Sooner than later, he realized that Wind Crest was the right move. Having lost his wife and best friend 12 years ago, he says there was just no reason to hang onto a big house.

“All that space could be doing something useful for some other family,” he says. And all the effort involved in heating it, cooling it, weeding it, cleaning it, and shoveling snow had become a little much. “I don’t own my house anymore. My house owns me!” he says.

Plus, he says he’d like to get out from underneath all the clutter that has accumulated over the years. “I’m going to start with two big roll-offs and about three garage sales,” he says.

Comparing favorite amenities
Ever since these three friends have made plans to relocate to Wind Crest, they’ve found new topics to discuss at their klatches—like which amenities are the most attractive to whom.

An avid walker, Brooks is enthusiastic about having access to walking and hiking trails in an area where she can feel safe. This feature rates pretty high for Brooks, who during the course of one summer walked 61 miles of trail along the Highline Canal between Waterton Canyon and Denver International Airport.

In addition to Boyle’s swimming future at Wind Crest’s aquatics center, she welcomes the opportunity to dabble in watercolors and acrylics without having to worry about getting paint on her carpet. “I also want to find somebody to play chess with,” she says.

For Pedersen, a third-generation Colorado native, the future holds some time to explore long-dormant interests. Retired from the airline industry, he looks forward to meeting new people and working with model airplanes in the comfort of his spacious apartment.

As for where this trio might convene for coffee once they move, they already have their eyes on the Fly’n B Café at Wind Crest, and the Tattered Cover Bookstore and Coffee Shop in Highlands Ranch. “We can hang out all day,” Boyle says.