Right at Home
Meadowood Senior Living residents embrace an active lifestyle built around community, wellness, and new experiences, all set against a backdrop of natural beauty.
A few years ago, Maureen and Tim O’Connor knew they needed to start thinking about the next step. They had spent nearly four decades living happily in “bucolic Bucks County,” as Maureen describes it, but subtle changes that came with each passing year suggested it was time for a change of scenery.
“We had built a custom home and lived there happily for 37 years, with our pool and our children, and then our grandchildren,” says Maureen. “But the house got big and empty as the kids and the grandkids grew up and outgrew the area. Soon we were alone in our big house more than we liked to have been, and were missing our social life around Philadelphia. That’s when I started googling and discovered Meadowood.”
Meadowood Senior Living was designed with a certain lifestyle in mind: active and independent seniors who value community, natural beauty, and new experiences. Located in Lansdale, the heart of Montgomery County, Meadowood consists of an array of housing options, as well as transitional care facilities, located on 131 tree-lined acres.
Meadowood residents have access to all of the resources they might need at every stage of senior-hood, with events and attractions designed to promote mental, physical, and social wellness. They also benefit from Meadowood’s proximity to an abundance of shops, restaurants, museums, golf courses, vineyards, parks, and cultural events.
The first thing that drew the O’Connors in was the sense of community, followed closely by the idyllic setting.
“We knew we wanted more home living, not apartments, so we could continue to entertain our family,” says Maureen. “As soon as we drove in we saw Meadowood’s parks, plant life, and the care that was taken on the property, and got this great feeling.”
The O’Connors were drawn to a model home, and ended up buying the day they visited. Three days later, they sold their longtime home in Bucks County.
“We called Meadowood a bit concerned and said, ‘Our house sold, we have five weeks to get out, and we have nowhere to go.’ They didn’t even blink,” Maureen recalls. Meadowood set the O’Connors up in an apartment unit while they worked with the couple to customize their new home.
“Tim and I were never sure what life would look like [at Meadowood],” she adds. “We were the center for everything in our family and also in our extended family. And because it was so personal, we had a really hard time talking about it. We wanted to approach this as a life change that would give us the opportunity to take care of each other equally.”
Tim admits that the change of addresses was not quite what he envisioned at the outset. In fact, he was dubious about the move.
“This has been an incredible life change, and I didn’t think I would like it here, at all,” he says. “I felt I was losing my independence and losing the home that we had built our lives around. I found that was absolutely incorrect. I couldn’t be happier, I couldn’t be enjoying my time here more.”
While the O’Connors love their new home—they even recently hosted two of their seven grandchildren—Maureen and Tim credit the community for their new and rewarding lifestyle. Tim says he has made a lot of new friends since the move.
“It can be hard to make friends as men, but here we are all going through similar things and living the same experiences, so building friendships is much easier,” he says. “There’s no pretense, and men are able to relax with each other and not worry about the social things that have a way of holding men back from developing friendships. It’s such a thrill that this is our community.”
Maureen, meanwhile, is grateful to be able to focus on her physical health while also getting involved in community philanthropic efforts, such as Meadowood’s Hidden Treasures, a nonprofit that works with residents transitioning through the community to sort through their personal belongings, clean them up, and then donate them for resale.
“Every one of us who have moved in have had to downsize significantly,” she says. “We all work together through these transitions to find a place for the things that mean so much in the downsizing process, and give them a second home.”
Meadowood has also been a place of security for the O’Connors, who now feel that they have the community and the resources to face the next stages of life.
“We were able to do this as a couple, but the community is one that encompasses people who are single and coupled so effortlessly,” Maureen says. “This allows us to age in a physically and emotionally healthy environment. With so many years living together and meeting other couples who have made this decision together, we have spent time developing these relationships while also being together through the life transitions that we know are bound to happen as we continue to live here.”
Now, almost two years into their time at Meadowood, the O’Connors are able to look to the future with a sense of safety, security, and possibility.
“There’s no place like Meadowood—I know, I’ve looked,” says Maureen. “The campus accomplishes so many different lifestyles of living, and the team here understand how deeply emotional and personal this decision was for us. We couldn’t be happier in our new home.”
Meadowood Senior Living
3205 W. Skippack Pike
Landsdale, PA 19446
(610) 584-1000
Meadowood.net
3205 W. Skippack Pike
Landsdale, PA 19446
(610) 584-1000
Meadowood.net
Photo by Jody Robinson
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, August 2022.
