We followed the boys here
As new residents of Cary (a little over a year ago), my husband Herb and I decided to visit the Cary Senior Center last November to see if we could meet other senior citizens and possibly find some kindred souls who could tell us a little about Cary. The first activity was the Veterans Day Luncheon, since Herb was a U.S. Marine who served in Korea, and veterans from any war seem to have an affinity for other vets who experienced what they did. The luncheon was great and we got to meet the mayor, who asked where we were from and what motivated us to move to Cary. Before we could answer, he added that most parents come to Cary to be near their kids, who moved here for employment purposes, and we smiled because that was exactly what brought us here. Over the last 10 years, our four boys moved to North Carolina, one at a time, because the job market was better here than it was in Connecticut. The first son settled in Chapel Hill, two now live in Raleigh and one in Apex, Herb and I considered relocating south also when we realized there was no family left in Connecticut, but we weren't sure we wanted to leave a place where : we spent the last 36 years of our lives. However, our boys convinced us to sell the house because they felt we didn't need such a big place anymore and they didn't want to worry about us shoveling snow and getting through the cold New England winters. So they house hunted in this area until they found what they saw as the perfect house for us in Cary (close to each of them yet distant enough for everyone to have their space). Believe it or not, we bought the house sight unseen (other than pictures on a Web site) and couldn't believe how everything worked out so well. The boys found us a lawyer in Cary to handle the paperwork, then supplied us with a refrigerator, washer and dryer, since we left all our appliances for the couple who bought our house. One of the boys and his girlfriend even came up to Connecticut by plane to drive us down here in our car after the movers put our furniture into a moving van. I’m happy to say, we love the house, love being close to our kids, and are very impressed with the town of Cary. It has a charm all its own, is well kept, and is well equipped with stores that enable us to buy anything we could possibly need. I might add that we've found a lot to buy since we've moved here, so parents relocating to be near their kids must be good for Cary's economy. There are a few downsides, though. When we saw Cary on the map, we thought we were moving to a small town with maybe twenty or thirty thousand people, and were overwhelmed to find it has a population of over 110,000, which of course makes for a lot of traffic. I don't drive, so I have to depend on my husband for transportation. While he loves those green arrow signs at intersections, and the signs that announce major intersections coming up, I find all that traffic pedestrian-unfriendly when I try to walk anyplace and have to cross a parkway or major road. Another downside was trying to find a doctor who would accept new Medicare patients. It took us a whole year to finally find one. On the whole though, we're glad we made the decision to move here.
Terri Andersen lives in Cary and enjoys writing about issues related to seniors. -
No comments:
Post a Comment