Pines Village resident profile: Judy Bornstein

Joy is Judy Bornstein’s favorite word.

And as far as joy is concerned, it’s clear she gives as good as she gets.

Judy describes herself as almost 75 going on seven, “because I have so much fun in life. It’s like I’m at recess all the time.”

The Meridian Woods resident is up at four-thirty each morning to enjoy the quiet promise of a new day, ready to bound enthusiastically from one activity to another.

Her primary passion is singing. "I dearly love to sing," she says. “I would rather sing than eat – and I love to eat." She turned to hospice singing following the death of one of her daughters.                                                                                                                   

Judy is a volunteer member of the Visiting Nurse Association’s hospice choir, she sings in a trio,sings to patients with Alzheimer’s disease and visits individual hospice patients. She also visits nursing home residents three to four times a week. 

She will ask patients or their families if she may sing a beloved old, old hymn – which usually recalls their memories of times past when their lives were carefree and peaceful. "I know that music can often soothe people when the spoken word cannot," she says. In addition to singing, Judy is active both at the Valpo Methodist Church where she gives her time and talents in 11 ministries or groups.

She is also very active in her community. She draws and paints in an art class offered through Pines Village each week at the Campbell Street Café. She could never draw a straight line with a ruler, and is amazed to have mastered shadow and perspective through pencil drawings, watercolors, acrylics and oil paintings.

In her 'free time' she walks, rides her bike, reads, knits,and relaxes with family and friends.

She is so busy, in fact, that she doesn’t have time to write the two books she has started – including one titled Joy in the Journey. Those will have to wait until her “sedentary years,” she says with a delighted laugh.

"Attitude is everything,”Judy says. “I love being old. It wasn’t always that way.

She was divorced twice, having been married for a total of 50 years, which left her feeling she had never been able to be her own person. So she made a new beginning. "My life began at 68, when I first began to live, and the joy I have found since then has been amazing,” she says. “As I began to sing, I really began to blossom.”

A big part of the transformation was surviving a hurricane and moving from Florida to Valparaiso. While visiting her daughter and son-in-law on Mother’s Day in 2007, she surprised even herself by making a down payment on an unbuilt lot in Meridian Woods. Since she had lived in Valpo in the mid-to-late '60's, she learned about Pines Village and its excellent reputation in senior living options and services.

She moved six months later,with the satisfaction of knowing that she’d never again have to worry about maintenance in her Meridian Woods home.

She says, "I may have married the wrong men, but I surely had the right children, who have blessed me with 17 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren . . . so far. " With the responsibilities of raising a family behind her, she simply delights in the opportunities to pursue her own interests here in Indiana where most of her family live.

Judy exchanges about a dozen emails a day with friends and family.  She’d like to knit and read more, but those, like her writing, will have to wait.

“I have a TV,” she says. “And all I do is dust it. I don’t have time to watch it!”

"My life at Meridian Woods is magical," she says. “We moved here as strangers, became friends and now are family,” “To have neighbors who are friends is a gift that I never take for granted.”

For Judy, life is one endless opportunity.

“You can see the glass as half empty or half full. In my case, I see the glass and I smile at the possibilities," she says

."My glass is overflowing with the joy of being content.”

"As we age, the best gift we can give our children and grandchildren is the peace, joy, and contentment with which we live our own lives," she concludes.

We Celebrate Life is a collection of portraits, in words and photographs, of just some of the wonderful, extraordinary people who live, work and serve Pines Village Retirement Communities. View more >