Like something out of a fairy tale – minus the magic portal – 96-year-old John Wolfe trades his small bedroom for bustling cities and breathtaking vistas thousands of miles from his home at Country Meadows Retirement Community.
And all the WWII veteran needs to do to be whisked away on new adventures is strap a pair of VR goggles to his head.
“I’m from the old school, so it’s mind-boggling to me,” Wolfe said. “You can have almost real-life experience, so you have bragging rights.”
For Wolfe and the other residents of Country Meadows, technology is life changing.
Two virtual reality headsets first arrived at Country Meadows eight weeks ago as part of a pilot program to introduce new technology to residents like Wolfe.
There are 10 Country Meadows campuses driving the technology program, so the headsets are shared across the state, according to Bonnie Geisinger, director of vibrant living at West Manchester Township Retirement Community.
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“For residents who have never traveled, they are traveling for the first time. For residents who have traveled in the past, they are revisiting those places,” Geisinger said. “They can have a conversation with their grandchildren – there’s a cross-generational connection.”
Right from the start, residents who participated in Geisinger’s virtual reality programs immediately fell in love.
Sessions that were supposed to last only half an hour turned into 90 minutes.
“They didn’t want to stop,” Geisinger said. “They just wanted to keep exploring.”
The sky is the limit with virtual reality technology; Residents of Country Meadows have kayaked, visited their childhood home via Google Earth, spent time with animals, visited museums and traveled the world.
Headset technology tracks where the user is looking. So if a resident turns or takes a few steps forward, they will be able to explore more around them. Experiences are also accompanied by voice narration teaching facts or encouraging the user to look in a certain direction.
In Wolfe’s case, he likes to use his virtual reality headset with a rotating chair that enhances the feeling of being able to move 360 degrees around the simulated environment. In a recent session, he visited a zoo, reaching out to pet a cheetah.
“It’s like you’re right there, you’re part of it,” he said. “You can reach out and touch it. Feel like you can touch the passing animals.”
Wolfe, born and raised in York County, graduated from West York High School in 1943 before enlisting in the Navy in July. Fascinated by all things flight, Wolfe studied aeronautical mechanics at Navy Pier in Chicago.
He had a choice of signing up for the Grumman TBF Avenger or the PV-1 twin-engine bomber – choosing the latter. But two weeks before his expulsion, he broke his collarbone and was out of action for 40 days.
“I had a vision, a dream, a man stood right next to my bed and spoke to me,” Wolfe recalled. “And his exact words were, ‘John, you didn’t chicken out when you didn’t join the TBF. Your father suffered enough in December 1930.'”
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Around this time, Wolfe lost his mother and sister in a car accident. Reflecting on his decisions during the war, Wolfe decided that his father had suffered enough and was grateful for everything that happened, as it happened.
Many friends who signed up for the Grumman TBF Avenger didn’t return, Wolfe said.
“At that time we used an expression, do you want to be a living coward or a dead hero?” Wolfe said. “I guess at that time I wanted to be a dead hero.”
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In 1946 Wolfe was discharged and used the GI Bill to further his education in aviation. After a long career in aircraft, Wolfe retired in 1987 and took up the business of making grandfather clocks and stained glass.
With childhood memories and tiny airplanes strewn about his room, Wolfe still remembers the spirit of adventure.
Although he misses flying, his ability to see through virtual reality is a reminder of the outside world.
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