New Zealand Curling Team Finds a Home

New Zealander Ben Smith never could have imagined spending the winter at a retirement home in Calgary, Alberta, sipping Caesar cocktails with three of his best friends – Anton Hood (pictured), Brett Sargon and Hunter Walker – while their octogenarian neighbours play bridge and tabletop shuffleboard, Scott Cacciola writes for The New York Times.

In fact, the four men, who are professional curlers from New Zealand working on their Olympic aspirations in one of the world’s most celebrated curling hotbeds, have made themselves at home since moving into the Chartwell Colonel Belcher Retirement Residence, a senior living community on Calgary’s west side, Cacciola writes. They are the building’s newest tenants – and its youngest.

The story of how a team of young men wound up occupying two suites at a Canadian retirement home involves luck, economics and word-of-mouth generosity among Calgary-area curlers. In the process, the arrangement has showcased the virtues of intergenerational living.

“Oh, we really were just shocked,” Bertha Esplen, 97, said. “We really were. Because all of a sudden we get curlers from New Zealand in our building. Man, that was great. We couldn’t wait for them to come.”

Original article by Scott Cacciola, The New York Times, November 2, 2023.

Photo by Todd Korol.