Jane

When Jane moved to The Sidings in November 2022, she looked forward to becoming part of a thriving community. 

 “When you’ve had a very happy marriage and been with somebody all your life and then suddenly find yourself on your own, coming to a retirement community like this definitely helps.” 

The early years 

Jane grew up in Wythenshawe, Manchester.  

“I was the fourth of five children and I lived there until I got married when I was 19. Barry, my husband, was wonderful. We were married in 1963, so we would have been married for 60 years this year. 

Over the years, Jane and Barry owned houses in Greater Manchester, Cheshire and the Lake District. 

“We’ve had a lot of houses. We spent our lives doing them up. We’ve always been entrepreneurs. At one point we bought the house next door to rent out as flats. We also had seven laundrette businesses and I started another business making ladies clothes to measure.” 

Jane has fond memories of their time in the Lake District. 

“I’d always wanted to live in Grange-over-Sands. We moved there in 2000. Barry used to do guided walks across Morecambe Bay with Cedric Robinson, who was the Queen’s Guide to the Sands. Charities would come and do the walks and raised millions.” 

Eventually the couple returned to Cheshire. 

“When we lived in the Lake District, we spent a lot of time driving back and forth to see our grandchildren in Cheshire, so we decided to move closer to them and bought a 1930s semi in Hartford.  

“We’d not been there for 12 months when my husband was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which he had for five years. I nursed him until he died two years ago. He was wonderful. He’s sorely missed by a massive number of people.” 

Deciding to move 

Having spent two years in isolation, nursing her husband through the Covid pandemic, Jane felt it was important to find somewhere to live where she could be part of a community. 

“We had been locked away for two years and so I had become quite insular. After Barry died, I got very frightened and didn’t like sleeping in the house on my own. You can very easily shut down and that’s what I recognised. From the person I was to the person I was becoming. The loneliness crept in. I was starting to feel sorry for myself. I realised that I didn’t want to be on my own.  

“I knew that once Barry died, I needed to look after myself. I also knew that my Mum lived to 102 and therefore I wanted to have something that occupied my mind. Your own company gets worse as you get older. It’s not good to spend too much time on your own. 

“I’d never been to Lytham, even though one of my sons lives here, so I booked into a hotel for the weekend with my daughter and granddaughter and went looking. We saw a lovely flat overlooking the bay, but I knew I would be just as lonely there as I was at home. Then I went to another retirement community, but it had no atmosphere or community feel.” 

It was only when Jane spotted a crane and carried out some online research that she found out about Adlington Retirement Living and The Sidings. 

“I’d done my homework and could see the benefits of a retirement community. So, I phoned the sales team and put a deposit down.” 

Enjoying a thriving community 

The main draw for Jane was the prospect of being part of an active community. 

“I have lunch in the restaurant every day apart from Tuesdays and Fridays. And we have a wonderful coffee lounge. It’s where we commune. When I go down there, I don’t come back up for four hours. 

“I’ve made so many new friends. I call them my family now. Most of us have got family too, but they’re busy. I never want my children to say ‘I better go and visit my mother’. I hate to think that they feel like they have to. To me, this is much better. I got exactly what I bargained for, if not more, when I came here.” 

With a busy social calendar of events, there’s always something to look forward to at The Sidings. 

“We’ve got a do tomorrow night. It’s a French evening. My friend Rene is 90. She’s amazing for 90 – the energy. She’s just unbelievable. So, for the French evening, she decided she’ll wear red, Pat will wear blue, and she asked me to wear white.  

“I think there’s either 28 or 30 people coming to the French evening. We’ve had an Italian night, a Spanish night and a Greek night in the past… and we had a party with an Oscars theme. I won an Oscar. It was for ‘who you’d like to be left on a desert island with’ but I think they actually chose it based on ‘who they’d like to put on a desert island!’ That’s the kind of thing we love. We love to joke. 

“We have our own cinema here. We watched a box set of Miss Marple and another of Agatha Christie as a regular Tuesday night thing. We’ve changed it to a comedy night now and then on Wednesdays and Saturdays we choose a film. We’ve watched Billy Elliot and The Full Monty, and last night we watched the Imitation Game with Kiera Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch. “ 

Living life to the full 

Jane is a strong advocate for the health benefits of living in a retirement community. 

“Living here helps me to stay mentally fit and as physically fit as I can. I do as much as I can. I’m still mentally agile and this place helps me to stay that way. 

“We had a competition for who grew the biggest sunflower. Lesley went and got the seeds, we all planted them in little pots and brought them up to our apartments and then when they were big enough, they went into the garden, and we watched them grow. I used to joke with Ken about cutting the other ones down, just for a bit of mischief. Pat won. 

“We have a Petanque court, we call it Boule. We’ve got croquet sets too and things like that.” 

 The walls of Jane’s apartment are covered with wonderful artwork and pottery, which is all her own work. 

“My painting of Kandinsky’s Horse and Jockey was my husband’s favourite one. I’ve also painted Picassos and Lowrys. I buy a canvas and I find a small picture in a book and then I square it off and paint them.  

“I love pottery and painting. I try to encourage other people to paint. Most people are frightened of doing it and really, if you just get a piece of paper and put some paint on it, you’d be surprised by what you can do. You can use anything. You don’t need to use brushes. You can use your fingers. I even have my grandchildren doing it. 

“I’ve helped some of the other homeowners here do some pottery painting with a special paint. We bought white pots and then painted them with this paint that goes on like nail varnish and then you just put it in the oven for half an hour and after that it can even go in the dishwasher.” 

Feeling safe and secure 

Another aspect of moving to a retirement community that appealed to Jane was the added peace of mind from feeling safe and secure. 

“I think one of the biggest things is keeping people comfortable and safe. Safety is important to everybody. I felt settled here straight away. I walked in and on my first night, I closed that door, got into bed and fell fast asleep. 

“Not all retirement communities have somebody on call 24/7. We’re also lucky with the team that we have here. We see them as our friends, not just managers. When we play dominos, they’ll sometimes have a game with us. They’re great. 

“Moving here was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, except for marrying my husband. What I was buying was a life. Since I’ve come here, that life is far more than I ever thought I would have. It’s a marvellous community. There isn’t anything I don’t like about this place.”