Over-55 Conniptions by Gerri Almand

A timeless reflection on what it means to settle down, face your age, and not let it define you

Aging comes for all of us, if we’re lucky. There is no side-stepping it or passing it along to the next person in line. So when the signs of aging start to catch up with Gerri Almand, she does the only reasonable thing there is to do: trade in her full-time RV life for a cush home in an over-55 community. Along with her husband Michael, she makes Eugene, Oregon her forever home. 

But as health issues arise and doctors’ visits become more frequent, forever doesn’t mean what it used to. She was once the reluctant RV wife—the title of her debut memoir was just that—but now she’s on a brand new adventure: realizing that life, no matter where you’re living it, is the best gift of all.

As a big fan of her first three books (the RV Wife series), I was thrilled to hear that Almand had a new book coming out. And it felt like a perfect deviation from it—how would she handle this new stability in this new place? Reading about her RV adventures with Micheal was a blast, but I, like many of her readers, was in it for Gerri herself. Her introspection and curiosity are what keeps readers coming back, and this book just gives us another glimpse into her charmed life. Almand’s voice makes you feel like a good friend, and she’s trusting only you with her most unfiltered introspections about life. It’s intimate and revealing, shocking and intelligent. I read it with gusto.

Much like I expected, Almand enters her new community and can’t help but feel like the odd woman out. All the people who live there are, well, old. And she, a spunky 74-year-old fresh off of living on the road full-time, feels like she does not belong. It all seems like one big joke the universe has played on her, and her reluctance is the first thing she carries with her into this experience. Though not initially feeling like part of the gang, it turns out that people in their 70s do fit in at over-55 communities, and   with a little open-mindedness, Almand finds out that there’s more than meets the eye to her new neighbors. 

Almand’s relationship-building is a real standout in Over-55 Conniptions. I liked many of her neighbors in this book, but one stands out among the pack. A woman—well into her 90s—lives across the street and holds a wealth of knowledge. 

When Almand is grappling with what to plant in her garden—a beloved past-time she hasn’t enjoyed since her last full-time home in Florida—she learns that while Eugene, Oregon is a fantastic place to grow almost anything, for the best results, she’ll have to take the slow route. Her blueberry bush, for instance, may take years until it’s yielding the handfuls of berries she wants to eat every day. This idea alone makes her wonder if it’s even worth it to plant anything the right way since she may not be around to see it in a few years. 

But her neighbor, who has a solid twenty years on her, tells her the story of her own mother who, in her 70s, had planted a tree outside her window because she wanted the shade. And over twenty years later, that woman passed away in her bedroom, under the shade of the tree she wasn’t hesitant to plant. There are seeds like this planted throughout the book that give both Almand and the reader hope to live like there will be tons of tomorrows, and it brings much much comfort. 

While travel takes a back seat in this book, the local drama steps in to steal the show. As Gerri’s community grows tighter and smaller, the drama unfolds rapidly. The over-55 community works almost like high school, with cliques and gossip, love interests and bad break ups, as well as the occasional cat fight (to be fair this fight is more of an argument, and it is about actual cats). 

Almand’s role is more on the sidelines than anything, as she observes and comments freely about the activities around her, occasionally getting so sucked in to other people’s issues that it overtakes her mind entirely. Her pal Jeremy, for instance, recently lost his wife who was one of Gerri’s good friends while RVing around the country. 

Just a few months later, he finds himself in Almand’s neck of the woods and reveals that he is on the hunt for a new, much younger wife. He hires an online dating coach, joins all the dating apps, and jumps head first into trying to find the one. His conquests and Almand’s unfiltered reactions end up being a focal point in the story, and as she hyper-fixates in the situation, the book does as well. I felt as ready for a break from their drama as Almand ends up feeling toward the end of the book.

Despite her friend’s situationships and drama becoming a main storyline, it’s not exactly their issues that she’s grappling with but what it all means for her. Her reflections often lead back to the idea that aging changes so many things, especially for women. Will anyone want her should her husband pass before her? Will she even be open to that, because she notices that so many widowers her age are truly uninterested in patterning up again. Will her next fall off her bike be her last? Will she ever truly fit into this community that she joined? She considers all this and more in Over-55 Conniptions and keeps readers laughing along the way. 

Just as in her RV Wife series, Almand’s personality and perseverance shine through in this relatable and honest story, filled with hope for the future. When faced with the idea of holing up and staring out of the window, Almand instead chooses to buy a bicycle and ride for miles each day. She frequents a vineyard with a bunch of hip 50 year olds and parties there weekly. She goes to music shows and dances. She squeezes every last drop out of the grapes of life and then makes wine with it.