Residents Deserve an Encore
Centre at Wesley Village Offers Upscale Amenities & The Arts
By John Lynch
Eighty-somethings Anne and Ed Griswold feel blessed to call the Encore Centre at Wesley Village Senior Living Community in Wilmore home – and who can blame them?
The Griswolds, retired educators who have been married for 58 years, live in one of the five spacious, two- and three-bedroom apartments on the top floor of the three-story Centre.
Their apartment features a wraparound terrace, offering panoramic views of Jessamine County – and a definite wow factor to retirement living.
With hardwood floors, state-of-the-art appliances, a fireplace, an all-weather sun room and access to the terrace from nearly every room, the apartment offers gracious, maintenance-free living.
The apartment is big enough to allow the Griswolds to live with their daughter Betsy, who has lived with her parents her entire adult life.
Plus, the Encore Centre includes open community space on each floor, a café, movie theater, spa/salon with massage therapy, and the state’s first heated, salt-water indoor swimming pool surrounded by a unique shock absorbing deck to minimize injury if a fall occurs.
And the Centre is connected to Wesley Village’s Community Center with its library, exercise room and elegant dining room.
Anne Griswold, who uses a walker and a motorized chair to get around, boasts that she has everything she needs under one roof.
“Everything is so convenient,” she said. “I don’t have to go outside if I don’t want to.”
All those conveniences in the 46,000-square foot Encore Centre that features 26 apartments from studios to three-bedrooms is only one reason the Griswolds have enjoyed every day since they took up residence last year.
They moved from their 75-acre farm in Bourbon County that they still visit regularly.
“The staff is so caring and the other residents are so interesting,” Anne said. “They have lived all over the world, and they all have stories to tell.”
That’s why meals can last up to two hours – there’s just so much to talk about.
And the same is true of the Encore Centre, which is just the latest in a series of firsts for Wesley Village, which opened in 1995.
It was the first to offer patio homes and the first to offer a small home for memory care (Holloway Cottage), and the opening of the Community Center in 2005 was the first public-private partnership of its kind in the state.
On its 32-acre campus, Wesley Village offers the full continuum of care where residents can age in place. Offerings include independent living to skilled nursing care with 77 patio homes, 40 apartments at Hahn and Hager Manor and 10 rooms at Holloway Cottage.
Plus, Wesley Village is a faith-based non-profit that prides itself on its affordability.
It’s also a joyous place, according to residents, who cite the Village’s celebration of the arts.
You can’t walk 10 feet, it seems, without spotting a piano or organ – there are more than a dozen on hand. Residents often serenade diners with impromptu recitals at meal times.
Plus, the monthly Café Cabaret features entertainment from residents along with high profile artists from the community.
Residents use the open mic portion of the Cabaret to showcase their talents in song, spoken word and standup comedy.
Visiting artist have included Irish dancers, bagpipers, jazz and classical ensembles from UK and Asbury University, and noted UK pianist Tedrin Lindsay.
In April, world renowned tenor Gregory Turay, who is an adjunct professor at Asbury, headlined the Cabaret.
Performances of that caliber are only fitting for Wesley’s residents – members of the Greatest Generation. In fact that was the inspiration behind the Encore Centre.
“We believe our residents have lived lives worthy of an encore,” Wesley Village President/CEO Glenda Creech said.
“Our Encore Centre is the result of countless hours of planning, building and programming… But to see the joy it now brings to so many of our residents makes it all worthwhile. That’s what a great Encore is all about!”
Top Photo: Retired educators Ed and Anne Griswold feel blessed to live at the Encore Centre at Wesley Village
Bottom Photo: Encore Centre at Wesley Village in Wilmore offers panoramic views and heated, salt-water, therapy pool.