WindsorMeade of Williamsburg

When my brother moved from CT in 2010 into a Windsor Meade Villa, it left my 97 yr.old mother alone in her CT home of 60+ years. We were fortunate enough to move her from there into an assisted living apartment at Windsor Meade. We found a caring and supportive staff and were able to personalize her apartment so that it felt like home. The public rooms were spacious and well decorated and offered views in all directions. There were just enough activities to keep her occupied and medical help and physical theraphy were readily available. The food was nicely prepared, although some portions were too large for her. Independent Living residents came and read to her and took her to activities. She was also able to go to the main dining room for Sunday Brunch with my brother and with my family when we visited. Her quality of life in her final 3 years was excellent. Our experience with my mother, and reports from my brother encouraged us to move into a Villa the minute we retired. This has been an excellent experience for us since 2018.

My parents have an apartment in the main building and have lived there for the past several years (since it's opening). We have found it to be a wonderful place with caring, attentive staff, tons of activities (they frequently invite us and the grandkids for shows/concerts/movies that are top-quality). My Dad is on the Bocce Ball team as well as the wood-working group. They stay active in the gym which is world-class- one of the olympic teams practices there due to the type of machines...not sure what it is, but they are top notch as well as the pool! This is a very high-end retirement community and has some of the best staff/chefs! I have worked in about 27 nursing homes/communities, so I've seen a variety of them when I was in my clinical job; so I speak from experience. I would highly recommend Windsor Meade to anyone...my parents have been very happy there!

The only problem with WindsorMeade was that it was breathtakingly expensive. It was very nice, and we liked Williamsburg in general, but we just felt that it was too expensive for us. All their rooms had vaulted ceilings and were very well decorated. I can see why it is expensive. For those who can afford it, it is very nice, and there is no question about that. The food was good. We had lunch there, and it was good.

I want to share the difficult experience that my family endured with WindsorMeade, a retirement community in Williamsburg, VA in 2014-2015. The unexpected problems all started in the spring of 2014 when my parents received approval for residency at WindsorMeade, and their medical information was received in May 2014. However, on a holiday, Memorial Day, we received a call from WindsorMeade staff telling us not only that there were questions about my mother’s physical condition but also that it was uncertain that they would be able to move into WindsorMeade. Their house had been sold, their belongings were packed, the moving trucks were on the way, and it was only a few days before the move to WindsorMeade. In my opinion, the senior management lacks the compassion and professionalism because they made the most difficult transition of my elderly parents’ lives so much worse than it had to be. Moving my parents out of their one and only home of a large metropolitan area after 80+ years was traumatic enough, but then to face all of those questions and the uncertainty of the location of their next home at the last minute was horrible. The day after that Memorial Day phone call, my husband and I actually did the impossible – we drove around to my mother’s doctors offices without appointments to gain clarifications from her doctors, which we accomplished within a few hours. Despite all of our efforts, my mother was still forced to take a memory test with a WindsorMeade nurse on the day of her arrival even though she was exhausted from a sleepless night before and a long drive on the interstate highway. My mother was upset and humiliated to be forced to take the test, but she passed it with flying colors. My blood pressure must have doubled that day. My parents, husband and I were all so disgusted. It is beyond belief that such a lack of compassion is be allowed in any retirement community, particularly one that struggled through bankruptcy just a few years ago. The next day my husband shared our disappointment with senior management. They indicated that someone had been on vacation and did not complete the medical review process for my parents. They did NOT apologize for the oversight, and they had the audacity to ask my husband to ask me to stop complaining about her to others. That is the last thing I would have done if I were in their position. I feel that the initial experience with senior management pretty much ruined our time at WindsorMeade for my entire family. Seven months later my father passed away. As soon as my husband’s and my new house was built in 2015, my mother moved out of WindsorMeade and into our house with us. Senior staff didn’t even say thank you for our patronage after spending thousands of dollars there. For fear of retribution, I waited until we received my mother’s share of the entrance fee refund before I wrote this review to share with others. We were disappointed that we had to wait nine months before we received the refund because the next residents who took over my parents’ home in WindsorMeade were given six months to pay the fee. However, my parents were required to pay the entire fee immediately up front in 2014. Although there are some wonderful staff and residents in WindsorMeade, I truly believe that the senior management lacks the compassion and professionalism you would expect and hope to find in an expensive senior community.