Relative Comfort

"Good girl!" Aria says.

"Since when?"

The chatter of Sonia Simmonds, Audrey Simmonds, Margaret Simmonds and Marie Hamilton, all in their 60s, has the cheerful ease of people who already know what the others will say -- or think they do.

Three of the women shared the same house for 36 years -- Marie joined them in 1989 -- before they all moved together to Laurel in 2005. Each has her own house on the same block, a new form of independence. Devoted to one another, and to their family, the women have always navigated American life as a group.

Their journey began in 1962, when Sonia flew from Jamaica to Brooklyn, N.Y., for a three-week vacation and decided to stay.

She was soon joined by her mother, her sister Audrey, her brother Norman, Norman's wife, Margaret, and their two children, as well as an aunt and two cousins. Just as the family was getting its bearings in Brooklyn, tragedy struck. Norman died of a heart attack at 26, leaving Margaret pregnant with their third child.

The best course, the family decided, was to leave their apartments, pool their money and find a home to accommodate everyone. That year, 1967, the Simmonds clan purchased a house in Mount Vernon, N.Y., that was big enough for four apartments.

Over the years, Audrey and Sonia helped raise Margaret's children while working in television and publications. Five years ago, with the children grown and gone, the four women realized their beloved big house was finally too big. At the urging of Margaret's daughter, Denise Simmonds, 43, a federal prosecutor, they agreed to put down new roots about a half-hour drive from Denise's Takoma Park home.

The women selected their townhouse villas, priced in the mid-$300,000s, because of the models' airy, yet cozy, feel. It didn't take long, they say, to settle into 7214, 7216, 7218 and 7222. (7220 was already taken.)

All four women work part time. Margaret, Sonia and Marie are food demonstrators at Costco in Arundel Mills Mall. Audrey works as a general office assistant at First Insurance Services in Burtonsville. The fifth member of this family compound is Veta Wright, who lives with Margaret. Veta began looking after Dean and Denise as babies back in Jamaica, moved with the family to New York and now helps mind Aria and Colin.

The women travel frequently: Jamaica, New York, St. Maarten, Hawaii. They enjoy sewing, painting and tennis "when the bones can stand it," says Audrey.

"Moving to Laurel has not changed our lives and interrelationships, as far as I can see," she says. "When one of us is hurt, the rest still bleed."