Meet Our Avidor Living Residents

Our residents make our community what it is. Sure, the services, amenities, and beautiful spaces are great, but the people who live at our 55 and over apartments give them the passion and soul. Read more about a few of them and how they have continued to flourish since making Avidor their home.

by Emma R. Frey

The Music Teacher
Meet Ginger | Avidor Edina, MN

Ginger, from Ohio, has always loved music of all kinds, but especially classical opera. She was a public-school teacher for 30 years and was absolutely thrilled to share her love of opera with her students. “Music is my passion,” she says.

In 2011, Ginger lost her husband and found herself needing to move back closer to her son outside Minneapolis, MN. “I wanted to watch my grandchildren grow up, of course, but I also had learned through experience with my parents, what a gift it is that I could give my son that I was living close as I aged,” she notes.

Ginger decided to move into Avidor Edina, and after getting settled in, put the word out around the community to see if anyone else was interested in opera. She received a tremendous response. As a result of that, Ginger created an opera group at the community, starting off with one session on a piece from Carmen, which eventually led into a second session. “We watched the first two acts in one sitting and then they came back a couple of days later and watched the second two acts and they loved it,” she says.

Ginger adds that she has other ideas to share. “You know, once a teacher always a teacher and I enjoy sharing.”

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The Socialites
Meet Sheila and Anne | Avidor Glenview, IL

Sheila and Anne met at Avidor Glenview and soon became fast friends. 

Sheila grew up in Wilmette and later lived in Glenview for 35 years. Ann grew up in Chicago and lived in Glenview for 43 years. Both women wanted to move and happened upon Avidor. “I actually still own my townhouse about three blocks from here,” says Sheila, “and I needed to move, and I wanted something very close and this is about as close as you can get. So, I love it.”

Anne feels the same way and thought that Avidor was the best option. “We needed a place to rent and we looked at different apartments and actually had put down a deposit on one. We came here and walked in and thought it was beautiful, and everyone was so nice and friendly and helpful. And here I am…it’s like living in a resort.”

Anne jokes that Sheila is the second social director at Avidor. “When we came [to Avidor], we were asked to come downstairs for Wine Down Wednesday and she just came up to me and just made me feel so comfortable,” she says. “And she invited me to a dinner that they had in the dining room. And I don’t know, we just kind of clicked; she just takes care of everybody. Let me say she’s my bestie.”

Both ladies love living at Avidor and it is apparent; they feel blessed. “Not only are the people who work here so kind and nice, but so are the people who live here, and we’ve made some very good friends.”

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The Writer
Meet Tom | Avidor Edina, MN

Tom and his wife Heather, married for 53 years, lived outside Minneapolis for a large portion of their life together. But in 1998, they bought a second home in Florida, and for the next 22 winters, cruised the St. Croix river, returning to Minnesota for the summers. Eventually, the couple decided to start another new adventure and moved into Avidor Edina in 2019. Tom reminisces that when he found Avidor, he knew it was the place for them and he remembers thinking, “This is it. This is where we should live.”

Tom shared a little about his childhood and what got him interested in his writing hobby. “I grew up in a family in a small town of 1,200 people,” he says. “One of the beauties [of growing up in a small town] is you get to know so many people and you get to know them intimately because you see them so often during the day or week…there’s an awful lot of characters in a small town. And that’s what inspired me to write. I’m in the process of writing a book primarily about the characters in that town.”

Since moving into Avidor, Tom started a writing group with other residents. “One person has, I think, three books published and another one likes to write children’s stories,” he says. “And the majority of the people [in the group] are people that may have, at one time in their lives, written about events in their life. Or maybe they plan to write that memoir and it’s just been sitting in a desk drawer. [I’m] trying to stimulate people into thinking about writing and it all stems from thinking about what we could leave to give to our kids.”

Tom sums up his thoughts about Avidor well. “The location, our beautiful apartment, the people, the staff, the activities that we can participate in or not, it’s our choice…it’s just the place, that in a very short period of time, became ours and our neighborhood. And that’s pretty unique.”

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The Go-Getters
Meet Eric and Sandy | Avidor Evanston, IL

Eric and Sandy moved into Avidor Evanston during the latter part of 2020 after living in Chicago together since 2012. Eric, a retired professor, was the chair of the Department of Material Architecture and Design at Florida State University. “As much as I was involved in that job and loved it, being retired was better,” Eric states. His wife, Sandy, was involved in a lot of different jobs, such as being an executive director for a non-profit. “I did a lot of different things in my life because I kind of followed him around,” she laughs.

The couple’s whole experience moving to Avidor was a breeze. From making the decision to leave their current multi-family environment and speaking to an Avidor advisor, to moving in and getting acclimated, Eric and Sandy had a wonderful move-in process, and they can’t sing the praises of Avidor enough. “I feel like being on a cruise ship that you would just never get off…the building is just so bright and airy and it really gave some very good first impressions, and the staff, it just couldn’t be better.”

Since making the move to Avidor, the couple has remained busy—just the way they like it. “On Wednesdays and Fridays, we have happy hour and wine hour, which is wonderful…we have more of a social life here than we did at the place we moved from because there were a lot of millennials there. But here, we see people, we know them, and we get to talk with them a little bit.”

To sum it up, Eric and Sandy are thoroughly happy with their decision to move to Avidor Evanston, and the reasons are clear. “I want to live in a place that I would be proud to bring a friend,” says Eric. And Avidor became that for them.