Exactly Where they Want to Be

Gordon and Edith Bull and their new home at The Village of Wentworth Heights

By Kristian Partington

Just before Christmas, Gordon and Edith Bull welcomed me into their new home on the 10th Floor of the newly expanded Village of Wentworth Heights in Hamilton. Months before, they welcomed me into the home where for 25 years they watched the city expand beyond its seams around them. Now through the large windows of their suite high above Upper Wentworth Street they can see the collection of homes alongside a schoolyard where their old house stands, if not the very roof itself. In fact, Gordon and Edith can now survey from above the entire landscape where their younger days were spent. I imagine the houses, box stores and chain restaurants evaporating before my eyes leaving only farm fields and forest in the area atop “the mountain” and I picture a young Gordon hunting and working the fields.   

Gordon and Edith Bull at Wentworth Heights
Gordon and Edith Bull in their suite atop
The Village of Wentworth Heights.

The Bulls are born and bred Hamiltonians and when they decided to downsize to a retirement home where their needs could be met no matter what happens as they age into their 90s, they wanted to be in their neighbourhood. They grew up in this area, fell in love in this area and raised their family here. This late stage in their life could only take place here, they say.

The Village of Wentworth Heights offers everything they need and they wanted to be one of the first to make their space in the new neighbourhoods of the village upon opening. As they show me around their spacious suite, they tell me they made the absolute perfect decision, and they couldn’t be happier. It looks like they’ve been there for years, not weeks.

“It worked out very well,” Gordon says, considering the move-in process. After decades together, they tend to finish each other’s sentences with gracious smiles, and Edith adds: “Everything went so smoothly.” Their suite is large enough to entertain guests and Edith still cooks when she chooses. The Ruby, however, a first-class restaurant overlooking the city below, is but a few short steps away, so they can choose to dine out if they so desire. Most evenings, however, they enjoy their meals downstairs in the new dining room where they can socialize with the new neighbours who are arrive by the day.

The comfort of their suite is one of the greatest highlights of their new living experience, the Bulls say, but there is so much more the village offers and they’ve only just begun to get involved. The activities on offer keep them more than busy, Edith says, and she very much appreciates the opportunity she has to improve her physical strength through the Program for Active Living alongside exercise therapist Laura Domenicucci. The Bulls understand the importance of exercise in keeping the negative effects of aging at bay, and they’re happy to take advantage of all that’s offered.

On this day, however, they’re simply relaxing while they prepare to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones, and there is much to celebrate this year: they have their health, each other and they’re exactly where they want to be in life, at home atop the mountain with their history laid out before them as far as the eye can see.