One of life's inevitable realities for the lucky is getting old. Now, I'm 66 and in fairly good health, but it must be admitted, the margins are much slimmer, even if my waistline isn't.

We went down to Maitland last week to visit with a couple of Mitzi's sisters. One of them owns a condo there with her husband. They're all older than us. One of her sisters was supposed to fly back to her home in New York City on Friday, but tripped on some carpet at the Orlando airport, fell and broke her pelvis. She's being moved to an in-patient rehab center in Orlando today.

Her husband passed away not long ago, and she has no family in NYC, nor in Kingston, NY where she has a condo with stairs.

The Online Photographer, Mike Johnston, often writes of his health issues. He's having a pacemaker installed this week. He lives alone in the Finger Lakes with no family nearby. Friends though. We should all have friends.

I'm very ambivalent about over-55 communities. I feel as though in some ways they're a kind of, very nice, ghetto. We self-segregate of course, but it is "out of sight, out of mind" for younger people. There may be an advantage however, at least in terms of healthcare.

In this planned development (Development of Regional Impact - from back when Florida had sane development laws. Now they just do whatever they want.), Nocatee, our over-55 community is a Del Webb and it's one of the largest communities in Nocatee. Del Webb, a Pulte brand, is even building another, smaller, over-55 community immediately adjacent to this one. So there is a significant concentration of the older population in one relatively small geographic location. (Ghetto.)

One of the largest health systems in Florida, Baptist, has a significant presence here, catering to the Medicare eligible. I'm enrolled in their AgeWell program; and I learned at my last visit that I'll be seen once a quarter, alternating between my physician and a nurse practitioner. The idea, I gather, is to identify issues early before they require more expensive interventions.

That's fine with me, given how convenient their facilities are here. The local office is close enough to take the golf cart or even bike to, though I suppose biking there might skew my vitals. There's a hospital about 20 minutes away, an easy drive. They also specialize in stroke, which is nice.

As if this "planned community" thought of everything, there's also an assisted living facility here with an integrated memory care facility (lock-up). The only thing missing is in-patient hospice. This being Florida, there is no shortage of providers fairly nearby. It's not like you'll be commuting there anyway.

One of our neighbors has just moved into hospice, having lived mostly independently in her home. One of our other neighbors has moved into an assisted living center and her house is now on the market.

We've offered our home to Mitzi's sister, when she's released from in-patient rehab. There's a major rehab provider (Surprise!) also not far from here, if she needs continued rehab and we expect she likely will. There's no surgical fix to her break, just a very painful recovery. She'd not have to deal with NYC winter, and have family to help her get to appointments. We're pleased that she's seriously considering it.

In an odd bit of sad irony, Mitzi and I talked about trying to get her sister to relocate here to be close to us for just this reason on the drive down to Maitland.

Two of my three children live relatively nearby. Ideally, we'd live closer, but at least they won't have to fly in to visit me if I'm hospitalized or when I can't drive anymore.

We had a little dinner party the other night and one of the jokes was about the number of single women living on our street and what makes a single man a hot catch is if he can still drive at night!

Anyway, if you're in your fifties and haven't thought about such things, now may be a good time to start. Moving is a major pain in the ass, and you don't want to be like our next door neighbors who are on their third over-55 community because they couldn't stand their previous choices. Moving from Texas to Tampa and finally here, next door to us.