Finding Home Just Down the Road: A Life of Creativity, Connection and Community at New Pond Village

When Leslie and Jerry Reicher began thinking about moving to a senior living community, they did not want to leave behind the community they knew and loved in East Walpole. After they toured New Pond Village, just three miles down the road, they knew they would not have to.

The moment Leslie walked into the library at New Pond Village, she remembered thinking, “I felt like I was home. From that moment on, we were very interested.”

Jerry may have been won over by something else entirely: the 24-hour coffee machine.

Even before they officially moved in, he became a regular visitor, stopping by for coffee often enough to earn a nickname from Leslie: the “coffee crasher.”

Two years later, the Reichers are very much at home.

Lives Built Around Creativity

Jerry began his career in the highly specialized field of medical illustration, completing three years of postgraduate training before earning a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Retina Foundation. In the 1960s, he opened a medical illustration studio at a time when Boston had few graphic resources dedicated to medicine.

The business grew into medical advertising and marketing, serving pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Although Jerry eventually closed his office, the work never completely stopped.

“I thought everything would stop,” he says. “It didn’t.”

He still consults, takes calls and works at the art table in his New Pond Village apartment home. For someone whose favorite part of his career was simply “picking up a pencil and pen,” creativity remains part of daily life.

Leslie built a very different career in rare books, archives and conservation. She wrote manuals that Jerry illustrated, and both worked on exhibits, allowing their professional worlds to overlap in unexpected ways.

“We had this commonality, even though our careers were very, very different,” Leslie says.

That shared creativity continues at New Pond Village.

From Wine Tastings to Garden Harvests

The Reichers are involved in the art club, garden club and a resident wine tasting program they help lead.

The tastings have explored wines by country and region, with New Pond Village’s culinary team joining in by selecting cheeses and accompaniments inspired by each destination.

“The chefs do an unbelievable job,” Jerry says. “They get excited about it almost as much as we do.”

In the garden, Leslie and Jerry grow vegetables and flowers, but their involvement has expanded to help enhance the entire outdoor space.

For Jerry, the response said something important about life at New Pond Village.

“Management encourages residents to get involved,” he says. “It’s your home, and you have the opportunity to help make it your own. That’s the difference.”

Leslie is now eagerly awaiting this year’s harvest.

“I’m expecting the cucumbers to meet me at the door,” she jokes.

Any extras may find their way into a neighbor’s mail slot.

Neighbors Become Friends

One of the things that has surprised Jerry most about life at New Pond Village is how quickly neighbors become friends.

“You sit down and talk to people and learn things you just can’t imagine,” Jerry says. “People really have terrific backgrounds here.”

The more the Reichers got to know their neighbors, the more fascinating those people became. A dinner conversation can reveal an unexpected career, a remarkable experience or a story that changes the way you see someone. Yet, Jerry notes, everyone is remarkably unassuming.

For Leslie, the size and warmth of New Pond Village make those connections happen naturally. Neighbors see one another in the elevator, at dinner and around campus. A casual conversation becomes an invitation to share a meal. That meal becomes a friendship.

“There is no age barrier here,” she says.

“Like Living on the Love Boat”

Ask Leslie what Independent Living means to her, and her answer is wonderfully simple.

“Whatever it is you want it to be.”

She still goes to her fitness club in Westwood, meets friends outside the community and stays active in Walpole. At New Pond Village, she has found even more people, programs and possibilities to add to her life.

“You have this framework of great activities and a gorgeous dining room,” she says. “You don’t have to cook. If you want to cook, you can cook. If you don’t want to cook, you don’t cook.”

Then she offers an even better description.

“It’s like living on the Love Boat.”

Jerry agrees. The difference is not just what they can do now. It is what they no longer have to do.

“I didn’t perceive it as a nursing home,” Leslie says. “I perceived it as freedom from all the things you have to do instead of the things you want to do.”

That freedom has made room for art, gardening, wine tastings, friendships, family visits and the routines they have always enjoyed.

“There’s nothing I don’t do here that I did back in East Walpole,” Jerry says.

For Leslie and Jerry, moving to New Pond Village was about carrying their life forward, with fewer chores, deeper connections and, for Jerry, a very reliable cup of coffee.

“The biggest problem,” they agree, “is the days go by too fast.”