Birchez Associates LLC

It was around the time she moved back from Florida that “the depression” settled onto Gerry Mazur.  Having moved there after the death of her husband fourteen years ago, she met and wed her second husband.  Sadly, he passed away as well and Gerry decided to move back up to the Hudson Valley.

“I began to miss my family,” she says.  “I came back up here, expecting that my grandchildren were going to be as they were when I left — you know, small, who would come sit in your lap, say, ‘Hi grandma, read me a story.’  But fourteen years is a long time, and these kids are grown now and going out on their own.”

Gerry sank deeper into depression and she found it easy to isolate in the duplex apartment she rented. Finally, the family became involved and one of her daughters told her about The Birches at Esopus, where she’s lived for the last year and a half.

That’s when things started to turn around.

“I like it here very much,” says Gerry.  “And there’s alot to do if you want to do it…I get to play bingo, and tomorrow night will be movie night.  I’ve been to every one of them so far that we’ve had here.  The theater is very comfortable.  We had new movies and ole. Jerry Lewis was in our first movie, and we laughed so hard.”

As for the depression that had descended upon her return from Florida, Gerry says, “I finally got with people, people to talk to.”

The key, it seems, is not just being active, but being social.  Being able to talk to other people has allowed Gerry to find happiness at The Birches at Esopus.

“My next door neighbors on both sides of me are very nice,” she says.  She does crafts with the Residents’ Club, plays bingo on Tuesdays and Fridays, and makes sure to catch every one of the movies on show in the building’s media room.  “In between, even when you walk to the laundry room, you meet people, talk to them,” she says. And Gerry gets out to the patio to visit with new friends.

“I just do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it,” she says.  “Once you’re retired, you’re pretty much on your own.  Of course, it’s harder to live.  You can’t go out and buy things like you did when you had a good pay check coming in, but you got to realize that life is going on, we’re getting older…we laugh here, and say ‘I’m not old, I’m getting old.’”

Brian Rubin for Birchez Associates, birchezassociates@gmail.com