By Kelly A. Shue
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

After nearly 21 years in their large single-family home in Oak Hill, Va., Gayna and Emmett Dunsmore, along with their dog Kassee Joy, eagerly anticipate their upcoming September move to Ashby Ponds.

“Our house requires lots of yard work, and there are always improvements to be made,” Mrs. Dunsmore says. “I’m looking forward to our move to Ashby Ponds because it seems more like independent living than what we are experiencing now. We’ll have the time and resources to do everything we want to do.”

Preparation and planning
Before Erickson announced it would be opening Ashby Ponds, its second Northern Virginia community, the Dunsmores knew that an Erickson retirement was in their future.

“We joined the Greenspring priority list two years before learning about Ashby Ponds,” Mrs. Dunsmore says regarding the Erickson campus in Springfield, Va. Priority list membership reserves their place in line for the apartment home of their choice and gives them special privileges like invitations to events and workshops on campus.

“We went to everything we were invited to as members of the list. As a result, we fell in love with everyone we met and were excited about our future with Erickson.

“We also knew that by joining the priority list we would have the peace of mind that comes with knowing we will be taken care of if anything should happen to us.”

Ashby Ponds enters the scene
When the Dunsmores learned that Ashby Ponds would be opening in Loudoun County, they decided to transfer their priority list status—an option available to any Erickson priority list member—to be closer to many of their friends who lived near the new campus.

“We were immediately sold on the new community,” says Mrs. Dunsmore. “We have friends living at Greenspring, and we’ll still go there and visit too. Now we are so anxious for Ashby Ponds to open. It’s going to be so much fun getting to know all our new neighbors. And because we will all be new  together, it should be easy to become acquainted.”