 | This is the third newsletter introducing the Casa Muriel Senior Living Center, proposed to be built near Antigua, Guatemala in 2020-21. If you missed previous newsletters look for them in your email inbox in March & April, or here on the website: GuatemalaRetirement.com. | | A Communal Home in Antigua, Guatemala | The Casa Muriel Senior Center is a productive community home for active elders living in 20 long-term residences - studios, apartments and bungalows. We share classes, meals, music, exercise and activities because meaningful relationships and good humor cure loneliness, the primary cause of ageing. The kitchen activity center is the heartbeat of the home. The versatile communal dining and meeting space could have a watercolor class, birthday brunch, baking session, bridge game, book discussion, or musical performance at any time of day. | | Our Place in the Community |  Guatemala Retirement .com | At Casa Muriel, we dispel the image of institutions and envision a viable and enriching community-based alternative for seniors. Throughout our Antigua ex-pat group, children have the AIS and Green Schools, business owners depend on our patronage for decades, and families expand and prosper. Yet, the older folks are out there on their own, maybe isolated and unsure, when a well-managed social and medical facility can get them back in the swing of things, the way they used to be. Living alone does not always equate to being independent; it could just mean that you have to work harder to instigate personal interactions. Our goal is to normalize the entire lifespan with community-wide social events, instead of separating and alienating the older third to fit into pre-conceived attitudes of the last century. | | 1960’s Counterculture >> 2020’s Elder Culture | The idealism of young people coming of age in the 1960’s radically transformed the establishment status quo. They were passionate for human rights, peace, and equality, and essentially reinventing what it means to be a young adult. These days, we are in the midst of an ageing revolution where older citizens are living about 30 years longer than their grandparents did, so they are transforming society all over again. The psychological shift of our generation is overturning the social order with a sense of purpose and reemerging with mature idealism, and reinventing what it means to become older. | | "Third Age” Cultural Icons Shattering Expectations | If you need more proof, just look at the headlines. The “over 70” crowd is dominating the pop culture news…
• Bob Dylan who was been recording and performing since 1963, reached his first #1 billboard hit last month. Look for his new album release in June 2020 – Rough and Rowdy Ways.
• Grace and Frankie, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, 82 and 80 years old, wraps this season as the longest-running original TV series in Netflix’s history.
• The Rolling Stones, aged 76 to 83, just released a new single, Living in a Ghost Town.
• As a role model of style, talent and dignity, Dame Judi Dench, at age 85 graced the front page of British Vogue this month. |  Go To Guatemala Medical Travel | To build a successful cooperative home, community center and medical facility, we must work together. I am contributing over thirty years of experience in hospitality management, business technology and accounting skills. For twelve of those years, I was organizing and guiding successful companies here in Guatemala and working with brilliant and devoted nursing professionals. You might know of the perfect property or investment partner. Do you have a personal experience to share that could positively impact the design concept? What sort of group would we trust to sponsor our project? |  Muriel at Hotel Atitlan, Panajachel, 2016 | I’m spending my isolation time crunching numbers to balance budget projections, so I know we can do this profitably for investors and economically for the members and residents. My bottom line: When every resident of Casa Muriel can say, “What a relief! I don’t have to worry about that anymore.” We must figure out how to get there. | Call Lori Shea in Antigua, Guatemala at 3315-1555 for a personal response, Write to Lori@GuatemalaRetirement.com
| | The Casa Muriel Philosophy on Aging |  Go to Guatemala Retirement .com | In the Latin American culture, we call it the tercera edad, or third stage of life, from your sixties to nineties and beyond. It is the liberating post-adulthood period when age and experience are associated with enrichment and spiritual renewal. I like to think of it as the Third Act of your play, the part of the story where the catharsis unveils the depth of personality that you have had all along. We are the protagonists of our own biographies, shedding baggage and insecurities and embracing the new reality with no nonsense and no regrets. In the turning point of Act III, conflicts are resolved, the cast of characters come together fully formed, and all the comedy, drama and irony unfolds in ways we never expected. Voice your story with eloquence and ever-evolving clarity to be heard and appreciated. You are a star, so make your Act III worthy of a standing ovation. | | |
