The boom in boomers’ parents moving to Northfield

It seems like every week I hear a story of a local baby boomer whose parents have moved to Northfield.

Andrea Een and Betty Een Wayne Abdella and Blake Abdella

Left: Andrea Een, a Norwegian-American Hardanger fiddler and an Associate Professor of Music (violin and viola) at St. Olaf), is one of my regular GBM window office colleagues. I took this photo of her with her mother, Betty Een, who’s now a resident of Parkview West at the Northfield Retirement Community.

Right: Blake Abdella is Executive Director of the Northfield Enterprise Center and board member of the American Center for Philanthropy. I took this photo of him introducing his father, Wayne Abdella, to the Northfield Rotary Club last week where Wayne was inducted as a new member.

5 Comments

  1. Mary Schier said:

    Griff: As usual, you are on top of the trends in town. We live down by the soccer fields and among my dog friends (that is, folks you meet while walking the dog) are several older people who moved to Northfield because their “kids” are here. The kids are usually in their 30s to 50s. My folks and I looked at some townhomes near us a couple of years ago–just for fun. But they were tempted. Northfield has a lot for older people: a nice golf course, a great library, lots of events to go to, walking areas, a good, not-too-huge hospital, lots of doctors, including many specialists, plenty of housing options, and enough shopping to satisfy most people. In addition, Northfield’s housing prices–especially for townhomes–while hardly cheap are better than most larger cities, including the Twin Cities.

    February 28, 2008
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Thanks, Mary. Nice to see your My Northern Garden blog humming along!

    FYI, in yesterday’s NY Times: For the Very Old, a Dose of ‘Slow Medicine’. It’s a review of the book My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing “Slow Medicine,” the Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones, by Dennis McCullough.

    For elderly patients, some doctors are now rejecting the assembly line of modern medical care for older, gentler options.

    February 28, 2008
  3. Mary Rossing said:

    Additional amenities unique to Northfield for the older crowd include the Northfield Senior Center with fitness facilities, pool, and new sauna, and the Elder Collegium where you can exercise your brain. Plus there are tons of free concerts, lectures and recitals on both campuses all the time. Perhaps I’ll consider retiring here too!

    February 28, 2008
  4. Clay Oglesbee said:

    Is Griff showing a subtle bias toward Northfield welcoming only boomers who have living parents willing to relocate here? Is this merely the first step in some suspiciously systematic “pro-family” move to screen residential applicants? I personally wouldn’t put it past him…

    March 8, 2008
  5. We just found out that my own grandmother Mae Dearcup was born in St. Paul! If anyone knows of her, please speak to me!

    See that’s why you must be nice to everyone you see-
    They might be related to someone from ol’ Minnesoti!

    March 8, 2008

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