Since Mary Nakamura retired from teaching elementary school, she has taken to leaving her Montana home for international destinations. Last year, she went to Russia. Soon, she’ll travel to Japan, where her mother grew up, and then to China.
“But Missoula is always nice to come home to,” she says of the town where she has lived for a half century.
Nakamura, seventy-four, grew up in Los Angeles and lived in Boston briefly after she married. When her husband was offered a job at the University of Montana, they moved west. Though she is divorced, Nakamura has never seriously considered leaving her adopted hometown, which she loves for many reasons, particularly its natural beauty.
“Number one would be the geographical location, the beauty, the amenities, and the access to outdoor life,” she says. “It doesn’t feel crowded.”
There are some downsides. It is not an easy place to travel to and from, Nakamura says. Plus, it gets seriously cold in Montana.
But the positives outweigh the negatives, says Nakamura, who has long owned a duplex in Missoula. She lives on the top level and rents out the bottom. She walks into town. “I would not want to live in a big city,” she says. “At my age, it is nice to have a laid-back lifestyle.”
