People say, don't burn your bridges.
Tom and Ginny grew up in Queens, NY, married, and raised kids on Long Island. They traded in the skyscrapers, 2-hour commutes, and overcrowded city life for water volleyball and nature views.
ON LIVING IN NEW YORK
TOM:
People say, don't burn your bridges. Well, I didn’t just burn them, I blew 'em up.
This is exactly the change we wanted.
Just being in this environment makes me feel freer. I'm a kid from New York City who's used to seeing 10 or 20 feet in another house, stray dogs, rats, and pigeons. Now I see a couple hundred feet, a lake, nature, alligators, eagles, and hawks.
In New York, I’d go out and shovel snow in the winter. Here, I can do a different activity every day. If we were still there, I think I would just sit there and wait to die.
GINNY:
We survived. Our plan was to move here, then towards the end of my career, I got breast cancer. One of the first things I thought was I’m never gonna make it to The Villages, I’m never gonna make it. We wanted to retire as soon as possible and move to FL because that's what we always wanted to do.
ON LIVING IN THE VILLAGES
TOM
In New York, I didn't have time to make friends because I was working all the time. I had one close friend - a childhood friend. Other than my kids he's the only one I visit. Forget about that down here. There are pages of people.
Here in The Villages, you don't know what people did for a living. The guy I played volleyball with was a Captain in the Navy. That's like the highest of high and far up the chain from where I was. Until reading his obituary, I only knew him as a volleyball player and the nicest guy in the world.