Talk of the Towers: A Story of Love in a Retirement Community

By Billie Hicklin

Talk of the Towers is the story of the author's mom, Ruth, and her life after becoming a widow and moving into Westminster Towers, a Continuing Care Retirement Community. She falls in love and marries a fellow resident. Readers will enjoy the story of two octogenarians who are not afraid to take a second chance at love, which can happen at any age if our hearts are open to all the possibilities life offers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781304601964

Book preview

The

Talk of The

Towers

A Story of Love

In a Retirement Community

By Billie Norwood Hicklin

Daughter of Ruth Norwood Tevebaugh

With Contributions from Family and Friends

Copyright © 2021 Billie Hicklin

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-1-304-60196-4

This book is Dedicated to

All Residents - Past, Present, and Future -

  of Westminster Towers,

Rock Hill, South Carolina, and residents of retirement communities across the globe.

Love can blossom anytime, anywhere, for anyone.

All we have to do is open our hearts and be willing to take a leap of

faith.

Don’t be sad it’s over; smile because it happened.

Dr. Seuss

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people who participated in the creation of this account and contributed anecdotes and details to make this special story as complete as possible:

Ruth Norwood Tevebaugh, my mom

Harry H. Hicklin, my husband

Frank, Lynn, Bob, Deb, Rick and Laura Norwood and their children:

Ken, Kim, Preston, Erica, Jay, Cameron, and Justin

Dick’s daughter Joy Tevebaugh Gunderson and husband Gerald

Dick’s sons Mark, Joel, and David Tevebaugh and their wives, children, and grandchildren

Amy Laughlin, Rhonda Watkins,

and all of the staff of Westminster Towers, the Manor, and the Health Center:

For creating an atmosphere for seniors that encourages social, spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual growth experiences, we thank you. For helping this story come true, and for rallying around Dick and Ruth - in good times and in challenges-we thank all of the special people at Westminster Towers..

Prologue

This is the story of my mother, Ruth Norwood Tevebaugh, and the love story that changed her life at the age of 85. Ten years after my Dad died in 1990, Mom was ready to become more active and less lonely than living in our big family home could provide. She also wanted to be a part of a community that included the care she would need for the remainder of her life – a Continuing Care Center. With her blessing our family helped her sell our home of 40+ years and move to The Towers.  Westminster Towers Retirement Center was less than a mile from where she had lived for all those years, so it was in the neighborhood. There on the fourth floor Mom found a home that freed her from the work of upkeep, provided friends right outside her door, and planned activities that kept her healthy, happy, and involved socially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It was perfect for her needs. Although her young grandchildren lamented the loss of the big house and yard to play in, they found that they were happy wherever Maw-Maw lived.

Soon after Mom’s move to The Towers in 2001, my brothers and I and our families began to hear about outings on the WT Bus with Odell, their faithful driver.  She was going shopping and out to eat, to museums and performances, and enjoying entertainment right there in the lobby. She was still driving, so she enjoyed her independence as well. Mom got involved in exercise classes and became the Welcome Wagon hostess for the fourth floor. We