[Sidney Lanier]

You know, I remember when my parents retired and moved to a condo in south Florida (near Fort Lauderdale). My brother and I looked at each other and decided that they'd have no problem at all moving away from us in upstate NY, knowing the potential for visiting, but how would they ever give up on being close by to their family doctor? Wouldn't you know it, after buying, our mother took the sales literature to show to the doctor and his wife--who ended up retiring and buying in the next building! We laughed for a long time. '-)

When our widowed mother turned 80, she announced to us that she was 'nearer than further' and that, after she died, we should consider keeping the condo. My brother and I looked at her and at each other and said (to ourselves and each other, though not to her...) 'Not for me.' At our relatively young ages, we could not see ourselves in that setting. Sadly he died way too young--at age 55 only two years after she had died--but here I am--older--and in TV! No, the condo would definitely not have been my style of living; I haven't been a cliff dweller in more decades than I care to think about. But in truth the concept of 'Florida retirement' looks very different from the perspective of my age now than it did then....