Cultivating Their Future with ChooseHome

ChooseHome members: Robert and Joann Yorks

Robert and Joann Yorks can cite hundreds of reasons they want to age in place and why they chose ChooseHome.

In fact, they can show you.

Just walk through their gardens at their Yorktown home and around their 800 azaleas, 600 daylilies, 10 hydrangeas and dozens of little flower beds, lovingly cultivated in every bare spot of the property.

Originally from Pennsylvania, the couple moved to the Peninsula in 1979 when Robert, now a retired Air Force colonel, was stationed at Langley Air Force Base. They found and fell in love with a house in the Tabb area.

"We moved into a house that was on a piece of property that really had nothing but a house on it," Robert said. "We thought the Lord must have put us here to beautify it."

In those early days, with four children still living at home, being outside in the garden also fostered quality family time, allowing Robert and Joann to be outside with them, Robert said, "doing our thing while they did their thing." It grew into a true love for gardening.

"We enjoy it so much and we didn't want to leave," Robert said. "We were looking for something that would allow us to stay in the house and do what we love to do. ChooseHome served exactly what we were looking for." Plus, it came with Riverside's trusted name.

"We've been in the area long enough to know a lot about Riverside," Robert said. "That played a role, too. There's a lot of companies around that offer something similar to this, something that allows you to stay in your home, but we trust the name Riverside."

Robert and Joann, married now for 55 years, will readily admit that they know they are getting older. While they have four children, they don't want to become a burden on them if their aging requires more care.

"My father came down with cancer and I had to bring him into my home," Joann said. "I loved taking care of him, but I was actually a prisoner to the house. I couldn't go out and shop and things like that. I didn't want that for my children."

In fact Joann has said, "we have one child located here about 10 minutes from us and we've impressed upon him that if we need help we'll call him way down on the list because we wanted ChooseHome to help us first."

Thanks to their garden, they stay active, determined to "wear out, instead of rust out," Robert said.

Quite frankly, Joann said, "we prefer to be outside more than inside and are already talking to people who will come and take care of our garden when we are no longer able to do that. We now have someone to take care of us inside the house and will have someone for outside, too."