Steve and Barb Anderson look around their new Lions Gate cottage, and sigh.

“Do you hear that?” asks Steve.  “That’s the quiet bliss of suburbia.  After living for 25 years in downtown San Francisco, you don’t realize how much your body and soul values a little peace and quiet.  We can sit out on our back patio, watch the sun set, and enjoy this beautiful open space full of sunshine and blissful quiet.  It’s life changing.  I look around sometimes, and can’t believe we’re actually here.”

“Equally as life changing as the serenity of this place is the chance to have someone else cook for me,” laughs Barb.  “I am so happy to have Chef Shannon cook dinner for me every day.  I love the food.  It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

Steve and Barb Anderson met and married in NYC, and lived in Haddonfield with their two children for many years.  Their dual careers (Steve a Corporate Strategic Planning Consultant, and Barb a psychotherapist) took them across the country to San Francisco for almost three decades.  But when they had the opportunity to move back to the East Coast, closer to their children and grandchildren, they took it.  “We looked at Lions Gate, and that was it,” said Barb.  “It felt like we had come home again.  And choosing to live in the cottage was ideal.  It gave us all the benefits of a freestanding home with a larger floor plan, our own garage, and a big beautiful back yard, but they take care of all of the home maintenance and yard work for us.  And we still have all the Lions Gate extras like access to classes and concerts, and dinner with everyone in the dining room.  It’s the best of both worlds!”

Steve and Barb both keep very busy, going to lectures, exercising at the gym, using the pool, and walking the campus.  But Steve had a health detour not long after moving to Lions Gate.  “I suddenly needed two surgeries,” said Steve.  “Living at Lions Gate made recovery so easy.  Instead of being discharged from the hospital, and having to rent a hospital bed and other medical equipment, I just went straight to the Short-Term Rehabilitation Center at Lions Gate for a week.  The staff was great, and it was so convenient for Barb to just walk from our cottage over to rehab to spend the day with me.  If we didn’t live in a LifePlan community like Lions Gate, I don’t know how we would have done it.  Barb just made one phone call, and Lions Gate took care of everything.  I am so grateful that we had those services at our fingertips.”

“We loved getting rid of the burden of having to do everything ourselves,” said Barb.  “I feel safe knowing everything is taken care of, and I can’t say enough about the quality of life here.”

Now that Steve is back on his feet, he and Barb spend their days on the go.  “I still maintain my psychotherapy practice, with an emphasis on couples therapy and human sexuality,” said Barb.  “I started teaching a class here once a month, ‘Everything you wanted to know about sex, but were afraid to ask’.  I’ll bring up issues I’ve talked about with people in therapy just to get the conversation rolling.  The people at Lions Gate are extremely sharp, and we have very dynamic discussions with this group.  I love it!”