Do You Need to Reinvent Yourself? Try Shared Housing!
Remember Rose, Dorothy, Blanche and Sophia? They started something. It’s become a great idea for a group of mature women to live together, and it’s called a “Golden Girls’ Home.” It’s women (and men) who share their homes with other active mature adults as friends and companions. And yes, sometimes we sit around the kitchen table and talk about the same things…political corruption, old romances, animal rights, well you get the idea…then there are times when someone in the group has something going on and needs a gentle ear…
I started a Golden Girls Home about six years ago when my husband and I separated and I was left with a large house, a recession that wiped out a lot of equity, and a mortgage that I couldn’t afford any more. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? So, I started advertising for roommates, and I found friends.
Sure, there’s a risk. It may not work out with everyone. Just like a marriage, isn’t it?
I now have friends who share my single life. When I come home after a hard day of work, there is someone who says, “hello” and asks about my day. When my car breaks down and I’m stranded, I have someone to call. We share birthday cakes, grandchildren stories, and stories about good-and-bad romantic connections. We share heartaches and disappointments. Each woman has her own room with her personal TV, privacy, and no one to tell her to keep it clean!
Do you need to re-invent yourself, for the thirteenth time? Sharing your home and life with others who are doing the same thing provides laughter and emotional support as you go down that crooked path called life.
Do you have an extra room where you live? Would you like to find other women to live with? Want to try it? Nothing to lose, and a lot to gain…. curious?
Here are situations experienced by real people who have explored shared housing:
| Bonnie | accountant and lawyer. Works professionally, nearing retirement. Has grown children and grandchildren. Struggling financially and emotionally after a very difficult divorce; |
| Sharon | Real estate agent. Economic recession was hard on her career. Never married. Ending a ten-year relationship and needs a fresh start; |
| Caroline | Outgoing and very friendly, sales-oriented but in an unsatisfying job. Recently divorced with grown children and grandchildren. Temporarily living with her daughter, but needs to find her own place; |
| Martha | Has a good job but spending all her money renting a condo, wants to buy a new car but can’t afford it. Planning to retire in three years. Was married for many years and had a big house but lost it all in the divorce and subsequent bankruptcy; |
| Angie | Has a great government job, but still paying off student loans and providing financial support for an elderly mother. Hasn’t been able to save much for retirement. Lost her only son in combat; |
| Cindy | Just moved to the area on a work assignment. Not sure how long she will be here. Doesn’t know many people and furniture is all in storage; |
Do some of these stories sound familiar? Shared housing is something to consider. People just like you are starting to think about it. Workshops are being presented both on-line and around the country. It’s becoming the topic of books. It’s a new trend!
Could you become a Golden Girl?
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So glad people are doing this as an alternative housing arrangement and a way to save money and to learn that it is working out. Remember that interview with Bea Arthur talking about the Golden Girls and saying how it could never happen in real life, four grown women sharing a house and getting along! She would be surprised!