Grizzly Peak
Say “dream home” to most folks and they envision 4,000 square feet, luxury appliances, spacious rooms filled with leather and finery. Marble counters, slate tile and a sprawling estate might complete the dream.
Say “dream home” to Millar Bryce, and a very different light twinkles in his eyes.
Bryce is at home – his dream home – at Grizzly Peak retirement community, an independent living facility for seniors on Missoula’s north edge.
Each resident has their own apartment in a dorm-like setting, complete with personal name plate on their door “in case they stay out too late,” jokes manager Lloyd Gillin.
There’s a lot of joking at Grizzly Peak. It’s not a stodgy, nothing-left-to-do sort of place, but a residence for those who like the ease of weekly maid service, a grounds crew-maintained landscape, and three meals a day served restaurant style in the resident dining room.
“Too many people think this is an institution,” says Bryce, who is keen on correcting that notion. “This is not a rest home,” he emphasized. “Most people don’t realize there’s such a thing as real, independent living.”
Bryce says at 88, he’s about the average age of a Grizzly Peak resident. Still, “there’s an amazing amount of people here who are 90 to 95.”
“I know so many people who think this is terrible, because I moved out of a nice home,” he said of his decision to move into the retirement community three and a half years ago. “For someone in my position, it is a perfect place to live,” he said.
His position is healthy, older and alone.
“Practically everyone here is widowed,” Bryce said, though with 113 apartments (97 are currently occupied) the opportunity to meet and mingle is superb.
“There’s more opportunity for friendship and socializing here than living on your own,” he commented. And company policy encourages that.
Residents are urged to eat with different people at daily meals, and most seem happy to do so. The result is a greater feeling of community.
“Everyone here is on a first name basis,” Bryce said. “That’s one thing you do here even better than a small town,” added Bryce, who moved from Plains. “You can make as many friends as you want.”
The active lifestyle and capacity to make friends keeps them young, the residents believe.
“I don’t really hear any moaning and groaning about going back home,” Bryce said. “It’s just too comfortable here.”
Margaret Carson agrees.
The painter and collage artist moved to Grizzly Peaks four years ago from Toronto, where she had lived for 11 years to be closer to two of her children. (The other two live in Montana).
Before that, “I was traveling around,” Carson said. “I’ve been a restless soul.”
For now she is content to live in the place she said she found “by accident.”
“I was driving around with my daughter,” she explained. “I wasn’t in good shape.” Reeling from the death of another daughter, Carson said “all I wanted was a room to hole up in for six months until I felt better. When the six months was up, I forgot to move out.”
“I’ve been perfectly happy ever since.”
Bryce said he first learned of retirement communities when his sister in Washington moved in to one managed by Holiday, the same company that runs Grizzly Peak. She was happy there, and through regular visits the idea of moving into a similar community seemed sensible to him, especially after his wife passed on. “It didn’t take me long to decide that was what I was going to do,” Bryce said.
“For me, it is my Dream Home.”
Another aspect of community living Bryce considers “dreamy” is the plethora of activities available to residents. Sightseeing trips to the Smoke Jumper’s Center, to Big Fork and Philipsburg are regular events. And while most residents still drive their own cars, a free shuttle service can ferry them to doctor’s appointments, grocery stores and other locations around town.
There are small group luncheons, ice cream socials, and plenty of space throughout the building to mingle with friends, be it for a game of cards or a turn at the third floor pool table.
“One thing Holiday did when they built the buildings is make sure there’s a lot of open space” to promote interaction amongst tenants, Gillin remarked.
“Lots of card playing goes on here,” Bryce concurred.
And, he noted, if you’re tired of Peak activities, there’s plenty of options awaiting just a stone’s throw away on North Reserve. The emphasis on independence is why Bryce believes Grizzly Peak’s tenants are so happy, by and large.
“What’s nice is no one feels sorry for you. No one fawns over you. I think most of us appreciate that.”
In Bryce’s generation, a can-do spirit predominates, and though they’re older, they aren’t ready to be coddled to.
“No one keeps their age secret – we’re all sort of proud of it,” Bryce smiled.
Carson, for one, is 88 and “full of aches and pains.”
“My daughter told me I wouldn’t grow old gracefully,” she says wryly.
Because age and its infirmities a factor to the group, each apartment comes equipped with an emergency pull cord, like those found in hospitals.
“That’s another thing that offers much security to those of us getting older here,” Bryce said. “You can pull the cord 24/7 if you need help. I think it’s a real security knowing you’re not alone.”
Bryce’s neighbor Glenna Mae Reish also agrees with him “I feel protected,” she said. “That’s the main thing – I feel very secure.”
“The comfort of being with people your own age should be discussed,” Bryce remarked. “You easily find friends with similar backgrounds, and just as easily form friendships that are very comforting.”
“Most men are much more afraid of this type of thing than women,” he added. The gender balance at Grizzly Peak “must be 80 percent women.” But Bryce doesn’t mind.
“There’s some interesting people here,” he said. “I eat with one fellow who was an executive in the steel industry. Another was a geologist.”
“People think it’s an institution, and that scares them.”
But for those who call Grizzly Peak home, that notion isn’t true. “I just hope that my message gets across to the folks that do not know there is very comfortable independent living available with no feeling of being institutionalized,” Bryce said, “At least nor for me.”
His fast friend Margaret Carson agreed. “I don’t feel when I walk out the door (of my apartment) I’m leaving my home. I feel the whole place is my home.”
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