Good Retirement Areas

[Jo Dirt]

Hi. Sorry if this is too long...My husband is an only child and we have been taking care of his 80 yr. old father (who retired from his job as a school psychologist only a year and a half ago!)

Grandpa is not able to live on his own anymore and being someone who's only hobby was working and living in a big city (NYC) we got him out here in the sticks of Tennessee and he doesn't know what to do with himself. His mind is still sharp enough to be depressed over his situation (he asks us all the time if we got any mail from the school system wanting him to come back to work) and even though his son tells him "give it up, you're not going back to work" Grandpa still watches the mail and waits for their phone call (it's sad because "we" all know Grandpa isn't going to get any mail or phone calls to come back to work).

Anyway...we have tried unsuccessfully to get Grandpa interested in some kind of senior citizen activity but being a city slicker psychologist Grandpa is very conceited and looks down his nose at these people around here as uneducated "hicks." (It used to really annoy me he was like that but at 80 yrs. old we can't be worried about his arrogance or self importance, he has been that way his whole life.

Still, grandpa is very generous and we love him and want to at least see he lives his last years out in an area that provides him with more stimulation and as much contentment as possible.

We have noticed he is more depressed lately, he has absolutely nothing to do here.

My husband does not want to move back to the cold up north and likes the hills and woods in Tennessee. But, in another year we would like to find an assisted living facility for Grandpa where we could live fairly close by. We were thinking Florida would have a lot of retirement communities with boardwalks and shopping and social activities (I would think there would be a lot of New Yorkers for Grandpa to meet, in his mind "anyone" who is outside of NYC is a hick )

The first city that comes to mind is Miami. But is there another nice area further up the coast, maybe around Bonifay, FL? We would like to live further inland where there are a few hills and woods and would like to be within an hour or two drive where we could come see Grandpa fairly often (I also like the idea of being able to go visit the beach).

I am assuming there would be plenty of jobs for diploma nurses in Florida, too?

Thanks in advance.