Peter Moore recently moved into a beautiful one-bedroom unit with water views. As part of our Sol program, he receives world-class assisted living care from our highly trained team of nurses and therapists, many of whom he regales daily with awe-inspiring stories from a life filled with adventure and travel.
He has piloted his own planes and crisscrossed the country countless times, sailed thousands of hours, built and run businesses, and is still an avid photographer to boot!
Peter’s home at Inspīr is filled with a curated selection of some of his favorite works, including a stunning, impossible-seeming shot looking over the East River. (Ask him how he got the shot next time you see him!) He’s raised two children and has six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Oh, and did we mention he’s also great at chess? Sharing his passions with others is such an integral part of Peter’s nature that he took it upon himself to start both the Inspīr Chess Club and a Photography Club.
On the day we met up with Peter, he was packing for a holiday trip to Florida with the help of his daughter and was eagerly anticipating getting to lunch. The menu that day—a tuna melt with all organic ingredients that would rival one at any top restaurant—looked especially enticing! So, we jumped right into things.
Q: I’d love to hear about your experience living at Inspīr and what you enjoy about living here.
A: This place is unbelievable! The people here are so caring; they all know my name, have a lot of empathy, are kind and understanding. I didn’t want to leave my apartment at first because all my memories were there with my wife, Caroline. I was married for 64 years. But my kids suggested I come here, and they were right. It’s good being with people. I would recommend this place to anybody seeking world-class healthcare.
Q: Wow, 64 years! That’s tremendous! How did you meet your wife?
A: That’s a great story! So many things happened that were unusual for me to be where I was. I was working in Philadelphia, and I had a friend named Andre from New York. He was coming down to visit me, and he said he had a girlfriend at Bryn Mawr and wanted to go visit her. He asked, “Can I borrow your car?” He was nice, albeit a terrible driver, and it was a brand-new car, so I told him I would take him there. When we arrived, he went off looking for his girlfriend while I sat in the waiting area. Before long, this young woman, all dressed up and very pretty, bounced in.
Q: And that was Caroline?!
A: Yes. Well, anyway, at that time, [Adlai] Stevenson was running for president, and I was anxious to hear him speak on television, so I asked Caroline if she’d like to come with me to hear his speech. We walked the various rooms trying to find a television set. Then I asked her out for a date. The reason she accepted was that she didn’t like the food at Bryn Mawr, and she was going to get a free meal from it. Three dates later, she agreed to marry me.
**His daughter, overhearing our conversation from the other room, interjects, “Nice try, Dad, it took five dates!”**
Q: What a great story! Speaking of meals, how are you enjoying the food here?
A: It’s all very good. The chef [Josh] is excellent. I like the way he cooks the fish. Especially the barramundi! It’s a Mediterranean white fish that he does with quinoa, herbs, ratatouille, olive oil, and a blood orange drizzle. The menu changes every week, so you never get bored.
Q: Have you met a lot of people here?
A: Oh, sure, I love socializing. I take advantage of all the experiences Inspīr offers. Whether it’s a tour of one of the neighborhood museums (Here on the Upper East Side, we are surrounded by some of the best in the world, mere blocks away.) or enjoying one of the many in-house programs offered, I keep myself busy and enjoy meeting new people.
It’s been really nice to have people to share meals with, too. Lately, I happen to be sitting at the same table where I’ve been dining with two lawyers. And, no, they aren’t billing me for the hour! It’s fun, all of us are active, we are never short on conversation, and we love a good debate.
Q: I hear you were quite the adventurer!
A: Oh, yes, I love an adventure and have a wonderful collection of memories and plenty of stories to share. Every summer, I’d take my children sailing. We would sail up and down the coast enjoying time together without any outside influences—it was just us and the wide-open ocean. Those are some of my favorite memories. My son and I also embarked on a month-long men’s trip with some of my closest sailor friends and sailed across the ocean from New Jersey to the South of England. That was quite the experience—we sailed without a radio, and I learned celestial navigation on that trip. Another adventure I look back fondly on was helicopter skiing in the Canadian Rockies. That was really thrilling!
Q: I also heard you play chess and started a chess club! Are there good chess players here to play with?
A: Yes, but I would like to have a few more. Chess is a wonderful game. Not only does it provide a way to connect with others, but it is great for keeping your brain active. We will happily welcome anyone who is interested in learning to play the game, too!
Q: I bet people reading this will sign up! You also started a photography club—that’s so wonderful, and it’s great how enthusiastic the residents are about it! Tell me about this photo on the wall. (It’s a beautiful photo that depicts a wintery path in the woods.)
A: Yes, I did. The photo was taken near my farm in New Jersey. It reminds me of the Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken.”
Q: Interesting, you seem to have taken so many roads yourself! I heard you were—on top of many other things—a professional, working photographer?
A: Well, when we lived out in the Hamptons, there was a gallery in Westhampton where a lot of my photographs were, so I guess you could call me a professional, but it really has been more of a passion project than a job for me. I published a book of images of people meeting friends or embracing lovers in front of the iconic Guggenheim Museum. And, in New York, I have 50 of my photographs hanging at an office in Midtown. I took a group of new friends from Inspīr there to see my work, and I’ll take you there as well since you can get a free lunch, but it probably won’t be as good as the food here.
LEARN ABOUT THE LIFESTYLE AT INSPĪR
From the moment we’re born, new experiences are key to our growth as individuals. That’s why they’re intrinsic to life and the continued well-being of our residents at Inspīr Carnegie Hill. We bring fresh programs and perspectives from a variety of engagement partners to support our philosophy of caring for the whole self. Engage in therapeutic programs, educational workshops, music, film, entertainment, and more at Inspīr.
