Robyn Yerian was 70 when she looked at her US$401,000 in savings and made a bold decision.
She took US$150,000 from her retirement savings and used it to address a problem she saw again and again across the US: many older women were growing older alone, without the support of a close community around them.
So, in the small town of Cumby, Texas, she bought two hectares of land and slowly began turning her idea into something real.
Step by step, that land became The Bird’s Nest, an all-female tiny home retirement community. Robyn has added roads, installed utility hookups, and created space for 14 tiny houses.
Today, 11 women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, and nine dogs, live there. Most of them are single, divorced, or widowed, and each pays about $450 a month in rent.
“It’s completely fenced and gated. I have 14 concrete pads with hookups at each pad, just like an RV park. It’s electric, water, septic, all right there,” Robyn said.
“You bring your tiny house in and hook it all up. I just put in a big pavilion so we could all meet together, and a lot of green space. That’s the key. You have to have a lot of green space.”
Most the women living in the community have been married and have children, she said. She herself was married for 10 years and found as she approached retirement age there wasn’t much in her pension fund.
But what makes the place truly special is not just the homes themselves. It is the way the women live together every day. They drink coffee in the open-air pavilion, share meals, give each other rides to appointments, and help one another recover after surgery. And when problems come up, they sit down, talk things through, and try to part without bitterness.
The Bird’s Nest isn’t burdened by the rules and regulations of similar gated communities, she said.
“I don’t like structure, and I don’t like rules and regulations, so everything flows pretty easily. We meet usually in the evenings for a cocktail and just catch up for the day.”
Women at the Bird’s Nest can live comfortably on a modest income, she said.
“I mean, maybe $US20,000, $US30,000 a year if you really wanted to just have a nice life and not spend and, you know, go on vacations.”
She believes living communally in a small social group will keep the medical bills at bay.
“If someone gets to the point where they can’t move around too much, we’re ready to jump in and help to a certain extent. And then, you know, home health care. We have home health care here that can come out like three times a week,” she said.
“So, we’ve talked about that. We’re going to do whatever we can to enable people to stay here as long as they possibly can.”
Now, more than 500 women have already applied for one of the 14 spots. And in that way, The Bird’s Nest has become more than a housing idea — it has become an example of how one person’s decision can create comfort, dignity, and community for many others.