Just one state apart on any scroll-down menu, New York and North Carolina are remarkably different places to live. And yet Governors Club has always attracted northeasterners to its picturesque and welcoming community.

When Ann Louden and Bill Fox made the decision to leave Manhattan and take up residence in Chapel Hill last year, it was part pragmatic and part pie-in-the-sky love story. The journey began in May, 2018. Ann had just moved into a building on the Upper East Side, and Bill was commuting from Rye in Westchester County.

Both were single but neither looking for a relationship. A lifelong New Yorker, Bill grew up in Rochester and had spent most of his life working in Manhattan’s fashion industry. A longtime Texas nonprofit consultant, Ann moved to New York in 2017 after the conclusion of a 24-year marriage.

“I couldn’t wait to get to New York,” Ann explains. “I’d been a fan since high school when I lived with a host family in Great Neck, New York preparing for a show. Music and theater were my world. Fast forward, when my only child enrolled in boarding school outside the City, I was thrilled. A few years later, New York was #1 on my list where I could pursue a second chance at life.”

“I couldn’t wait to leave New York,” Bill counters. “I was over the weather, the commutes, the crowds, and the challenges of everyday living. A friend of mine once told me: ‘New York has everything you want and everything you don’t.’ I had eaten at every steakhouse, seen every attraction, and wasn’t attached to any of it anymore…and then I met Ann.”

The circumstances of their meeting only New Yorkers can experience. Ann boarded a commuter train that Bill was riding and took a seat opposite him. What she didn’t know was that a grommet from the sleeve of her dress had fallen off and landed on the floor of the train car. When Bill made a pass at her legs to pick it up, she was taken aback. Holding out his hand, he said with a smile and a wink: “I believe you’ve lost something!”. And there began their dating adventure.

A year and a half later when Covid swept New York with a vengeance, Ann suggested Bill pack a bag to stay at her apartment in Manhattan for a couple of weeks “until this blows over”. 491 days later, he was still there when Ann left for a quick trip back to Texas.

By that time, Ann and Bill were on the hunt to leave New York. Practically speaking, Covid had wrought big changes on the City. And personally speaking, they decided they wanted to be somewhere new…together.

Their first trip to Governors Club was in March, 2021. Because of Covid, there were no homes for sale. Sitting in rocking chairs at the Carolina Inn, Ann and Bill reluctantly concluded it was not to be. But then in September 2021, they learned about a rental in Governors Club. “We had just 24 hours to see the house and make a decision. We paid $2000 for the last two coach tickets on Jet Blue from JFK. It was the smartest money we ever spent,” Bill marveled.  

Ann and Bill now own the house they started out leasing. Falling in love with each other also has meant falling in love with North Carolina!

Top ten differences between North Carolina and New York: