“I was one of those obnoxious New Yorkers who sneered at the idea of living anywhere else,” says Ms. Deborah Harkins, who moved to Sunrise at Bluemont Park in 2016, after having a stroke. She could no longer stay in her beloved city and moved to a Sunrise near her family in Arlington.
The transition was tough. But the improbable happened: soon after she arrived, an exuberant Italian widower moved in. To their surprise, she and Joe Ascierto had the joy of a last romance.
She was a long-time editor at New York magazine, and he was an adventurous merchant seaman. In his memoir Joe described how they were seated together at what he called the “happy table”— “we laugh, have funny stories to tell, and sing old tunes spontaneously during mealtimes.”
“Could two very mature adults still have sparkles enough to start a flame,” Joe mused just after they met? The answer was yes.
Sunrise at Bluemont Park, Arlington