Visit the volunteer-run Midget Market at Vantage House, and you might find Barbara Hands behind the counter. “I like to keep my hands busy,” the 80-year-old says, laughing at the play on words. But she’s serious about the benefits of keeping busy.

“At my age, there are lots of good memories to look back at and chuckle, but then one has to move on,” she says. “You can’t live in the past, or you get stuck in a time warp. It’s important to make a life for yourself.”

Her life includes serving as coordinator for the Midget Market, growing plants from seeds and cuttings, and sewing. She learned her way around Howard County following her grandchildren’s soccer and lacrosse games.

She moved to Vantage House from Lewes, Deleware, after her husband passed away. She says she wanted to downsize, and she also wanted to be near her sister and a daughter. Both live in Catonsville.

Hands looked at several retirement options before making a final decision. Some were beautiful but too far away from her family, she says, and some were so large they felt like small cities. 

“Here it’s like a neighborhood,” she says. “You get to know everybody. There are people with lots of different personalities and backgrounds. You can be private if you want or as social as you like.”

And there are lots of ways to keep your hands busy. Midget Market volunteers handle everything from keeping an inventory of gift items to purchasing all the everyday items people need. During store hours, one volunteer is the cashier and another is an assistant, fondly known as the “bag lady.”