{"id":4963,"date":"2025-10-29T01:52:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T01:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/?p=4963"},"modified":"2025-10-29T02:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T02:02:34","slug":"its-very-social-and-i-havent-been-social-for-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/retirement\/its-very-social-and-i-havent-been-social-for-two-years\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s very social, and I haven\u2019t been social for two years\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"4963\" class=\"elementor elementor-4963\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-30330e0 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"30330e0\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-043ed18\" data-id=\"043ed18\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-73d08e8 elementor-drop-cap-yes elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"73d08e8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;drop_cap&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>W<strong>hen Gary Briggs\u2019 wife died about two years ago, his life changed for the worse.<\/strong><\/p><p>\u201cEventually, I realised I was sitting at home in a dirty big house, far too big for me, and I was by myself all day long, talking to myself all day long,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Knowing he needed to make a change, Gary purchased a home in Stage 1A of Providence Lifestyle\u2019s Henley Brook Lifestyle Resort and moved in earlier this year, becoming one of the land lease community\u2019s first homeowners.<\/p><p>\u201cAll of a sudden, I&#8217;m not a lonely old man sitting by myself anymore,\u201d he bravely revealed.<\/p><p>\u201cMy favourite thing at the moment about moving into the Resort is I&#8217;ve got people to talk to, like-minded people.<\/p><p>\u201cWe all discuss things every day, we all go for a walk, and we all went to the Wellness Retreat the other day and sat around and had our afternoon drinks.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s very social, and I haven\u2019t been social for two years; it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p><p>The security and convenience of living in a gated community is also not lost on Gary.<\/p><p>\u201cYou feel safe,\u201d he explains.<\/p><p>\u201cYou can walk out the door and there&#8217;ll be somebody always there keeping an eye on your place.<\/p><p>\u201cYou can go on holidays and there are people around to help look after your house.\u201d<\/p><p>Gary\u2019s also got his sights set on the future, eagerly awaiting the opening of the Resort\u2019s state-of-the-art Clubhouse.<\/p><p>\u201cThere will be a swimming pool, tennis courts, lawn bowls, darts, pool competitions; it will be fantastic. There&#8217;ll be something for everybody,\u201d Gary states.<\/p><p>\u201cIf you&#8217;re thinking of downsizing, do it now. Do it while you&#8217;re still young enough to enjoy this place.<\/p><p>\u201cDon&#8217;t leave it too late in life because you&#8217;ll regret every second of it.\u201d<\/p><p><strong><em>Check the great retirement living facilities on #1 listings website <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au\/\"><strong><em>villages.com.au<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-b1549f0 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"b1549f0\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-cd6bd77\" data-id=\"cd6bd77\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-700b823 elementor-button-success elementor-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"700b823\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-lg\" href=\"https:\/\/thedcmgroup.createsend1.com\/t\/y-e-qkttln-l-yd\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Return to Newsletter<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Gary Briggs\u2019 wife died about two years ago, his life changed for the worse. \u201cEventually, I realised I was sitting at home in a dirty big house, far too big for me, and I was by myself all day long, talking to myself all&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retirement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4963"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4981,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions\/4981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}