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Living the Spiritual Quest of Later Years
ElderSpirit Community in Abingdon, Virginia is about aging, and also about living and housing, and eventually about dying. It is about all these-not as an ending or as a failing, but as an opportunity, a possibility. As far as we know, our affordable, mixed-income cohousing community is the first cohousing project in the United States exclusively for older adults. And it's the first residential community formed around the purpose of later-life spirituality.
In 1999 our group purchased 3.7 acres, and construction is now beginning for our 29 homes. They should be ready for move-in by the end of August, 2004. It's exciting to see the work of the past four years coming to fruition!
Our origins go back to 1967 when a group of women working in Appalachia in areas of community service and development organized the Federation of Communities in Service (FOCIS). The group later expanded to include men as well as women. As some members approached retirement age, we thought about forming a retirement community, and in 1995 formed a committee, "FOCIS Futures," to look into this. The idea for ElderSpirit was conceived and nourished by this committee.
For several years we had three or four meetings a year. After learning about the cohousing movement, we decided that cohousing would be the model we would follow, and agreed on the above-described values. Our group identified strongly with the ideas on later-life spirituality expressed by Drew Leder in his article, "Spiritual Community in Later Life: A Modest Proposal" (Journal of Aging Studies, Vol. 10, Number 2, pp. 103-116, 1996). We adopted the name "ElderSpirit" from this article.
Several people interested in the project lived in or near Abingdon, and they invited all who had shown interest in the project to come to an "Immersion into Abingdon." Our friends gave us a tour of the town; showed us the health, professional, and shopping resources for seniors; and told us stories and experiences of living in Abingdon. The town has many features that make it attractive for retirees-a rails-to-trails walking, cycling, and running trail; the Barter Theatre; several arts and crafts establishments; a fine health activities center with indoor pool; and an annual arts festival.
I moved to...