Starting A New Adventure At Hawk Ridge

Miriam Reisbord and her husband Stu decided to do something late in life that others might view as a little bit crazy: they launched a business. Miriam gave up teaching and Stu sold his tire business in order to pursue their dream of becoming art dealers.

“For years, Stu was just a collector. He was crazy about original cartoon drawings, like the animation cels from old Disney cartoons and comic strips. And one day he just turned to me and told me that he wanted to sell the tire business to essentially turn his hobby into a new line of work. It was exciting and wonderful for both of us,” recalls Reisbord. “It was a real adventure.”

But when Stu’s health started to fail, they had to shutter the business. Stu passed away in 2009, leaving Reisbord alone in their big house in Rose Valley.

“I was happy to stay in the house alone after Stu passed,” says Reisbord. “We had a lot of friends in the community and our children live close by. It was good for me to remain connected to the life we shared together. But eventually our friends started to move away, some across the country, and it’s not as fulfilling for me to be here anymore. I love our house, but it no longer suits me.”

When Reisbord told her three children that she wanted to move to a retirement community, she reports that they were quite surprised.

“I explained to them that I wanted to have a bigger life than I was living,” Reisbord says. “I felt ready to make a move, and I looked at retirement communities all over the Greater Philadelphia area.”

Unfortunately, she was not connecting with any of the communities she visited.

“I wanted that same kind of bucolic environment that I had in Rose Valley, which is very serene, and there is lots of open space,” says Reisbord. “When I finally arrived at The Hill it was really an ‘aha’ moment for me. I had a strong reaction, and felt something pulling me to it.”

Reisbord became one of the first residents to opt into the new neighborhood at The Hill, Hawk Ridge. She signed up pre-construction, and although she couldn’t see her new home, she believed in the vision for the new buildings—spacious apartments with 9-foot ceilings, convenient underground parking, hardwood floors, and abundant windows that look out on the rolling hills of the property. As a bonus, the layout of her new apartment will be able to support the impressive art collection she and her late husband amassed over the years.

“I was able to get a special preview of the Hawk Ridge neighborhood once construction was underway. It was really thrilling to put on a hardhat and tour the new space,” says Reisbord. “It was great fun. I started to feel giddy about seeing something more tangible than a blueprint and to meet some of my new neighbors. I’m very excited about having something new and fresh and different in my life.”

“At a certain age it becomes easy to think that most of your good memories are behind you, but now I am really looking forward to the new adventure ahead of me! I’m hoping to enjoy every bit of what The Hill has to offer and I am genuinely looking forward to being surprised by life again.”

More than anything, Reisbord is looking forward to having adventure in her life again. When she agreed to help Stu launch the art business all those years ago, Reisbord had been enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) and was studying painting, a pastime that she loved. She even had studio space on Chestnut Street. She hopes to get back into painting once she moves to The Hill, which has a wonderful art studio. She’s even planning on using the second bedroom of her new apartment as a makeshift art studio, and has her easel ready to go. Reisbord is also excited to find new and enriching activities to pursue in her new neighborhood—from trying Pickleball, to exploring Chestnut Hill, to visiting the nearby Woodmere Art Museum and the Morris Arboretum (both of which her thoughtful daughter-in-law gifted her memberships to for her birthday).