Better Health, Better Life
Future residents Warwick and Sandra Trimble share how Yarra Rossa will boost their wellbeing. When Warwick and Sandra Trimble were ready to downsize, health was at the forefront of their minds.
Scroll to Explore
30 July 2021
Stories
| Retirement Living
When Warwick and Sandra Trimble were ready to downsize, health was at the forefront of their minds. Having both gone through cancer, moving to a village where they could spend less time maintaining their large five-bedroom house and more time maintaining their wellbeing was paramount.
“My father lived until he was 98, and he flatly refused to move into any kind of village,” Sandra explains. “When he was younger, he was so outgoing, but he became quite isolated. I’m sure if he had gone into a village he’d have had far wider social interaction with people, and we feel he just missed out on so much. We didn’t want that to happen to us.”
Yarra Rossa was the perfect retirement-living choice for the couple, because it was in their neighbourhood of Red Hill, allowing them to stay close to their doctor and favourite shops. Yarra Rossa’s focus on social connection, which is so vital for physical and mental wellbeing, also appealed. Warwick and Sandra are looking forward to bonding with other residents over shared interests – she loves patchwork and reading, while his interests include bonsai, choir and woodwork.
“Where we live now you see very few people during the day so there’s not much social activity,” says Warwick. “By moving I could share my hobbies, my bonsai – I could loan them out to people, demonstrate how to do them or put them on display. I also do woodwork; if there’s a men’s workshop I can make bird feeders and that sort of thing.”
To support his health Warwick had been exercising at a health club but it’s hard to get there since he no longer drives and his walking capacity is restricted for the moment. Being able to swim and exercise on site at Yarra Rossa will do him the power of good, he says.
“And when I get a bit better I’d like to go walking too,” he adds. “There will be a walking group and a program where something happens every day.”
Watching Yarra Rossa take shape is giving Warwick and Sandra a real thrill – “We drive by quite often; the builders probably say, ‘here comes that red car again!’, laughs Sandra – and viewing the display suite recently has helped them visualise what their new life will be like.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Sandra says. “We’ve got a larger apartment but I was pleasantly surprised at how spacious this two-bedroom one was. There was light flooding in through the windows and I was impressed by the quality of the fixtures and fittings. When I walked in, it gave a feeling of luxury.”
Another tick in Yarra Rossa’s favour was its sustainability credentials, which will bring down their energy costs.
“We believe we’ll be able to live more efficiently in the new place, because of the double-glazed windows and all those things that have made the building sustainable,” Sandra says.
Hearing Warwick and Sandra’s excitement about the impending move, you get the sense they’ll play key roles in the Yarra Rossa community.
“One of the places we looked at was multi-storey and quite large, whereas this is more a village atmosphere,” Sandra says. “There’s nothing over two storeys. It gives a sense of community when you see the plans as like a village rather than a big complex.
“Yarra Rossa just suited us down to the ground.”