Sitting on the floor under sun-filled window of Doris Richardson’s Vantage House apartment is a remarkable jade plant.  Thick and full, it has come full circle. 

When Richardson moved to Vantage House from her Columbia home three years ago, the plant was one of many she gave away.  One of her eight sons took it with him.  Upon his death, another son distributed cuttings of the plant to everyone in the family.  They’ve all taken root and grown lush — again.

The jade is one of several plants, including a pothos so luxuriant it threatened to take over the apartment until Richardson cut it back and an orchid of the most striking pink, that frame her living room window. And the sunny windows for plants are just one of the things she loves about Vantage House.

“I feel comfortable here.  I really do,” she says.  “I like the fact that I have my own apartment with a stove as big as the one I had at home.  I like to cook my own dinner a lot.”  Of course, she’s also happy to eat in the community’s handsome dining room and its more casual café where residents tend to gather at various times during the day.

Richardson, who is now 85, moved to Columbia more than 30 years ago. She says she moved here for the same reasons as everyone else did three decades ago: the concept of a new community where race and economic status didn’t matter.  

“People were warm and friendly,” she recalls. “Everybody spoke to everyone.”

Now, with the exception of one son who still lives in the area, Richardson’s 10 children are scattered across the country. And while Columbia has changed over the years, it and Vantage House still feel like home.