Resident Spotlight: Betty Lloyd cherishes her memories

Betty Lloyd cherishes her memories!

Golf with friends. Bridge. Travel with family. Betty Lloyd has brought a lifetime of good memories to Homeland Center.

Homeland Center resident Betty Lloyd visits with her son, Greg. “Homeland has a lot of activities,” Betty says. “You can join them and do anything you want to pick from. I always enjoy talking to people.”

Betty came to Homeland in March 2015. Here, she follows politics and welcomes her son, Greg, when he visits from Providence, Rhode Island, every month.

Before Homeland, she lived in nearby Susquehanna Township, in the same home since 1961. From that house, one of the first in its development, Betty and her husband, Reese, built a life that revolved around the community. Greg spent summers at the neighborhood swim club. Betty played bridge with several groups. Reese worked selling specialized packaging tape and taping machinery to manufacturers.

“It was about finding interesting ways to use lots of tape,” says Greg.

When Greg was grown and moved to Portland, Oregon, Betty and Reese would make annual visits with stops at interesting sites along the way – New Orleans, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, San Francisco, Hearst Castle. Often, they would golf as they traveled. Though golf was a big part of their life, Betty says she wasn’t very good at it.

“There were four couples, and we played together,” she says. “We enjoyed it. The men were good, but the women weren’t good. We went along just to make it easier for them to get out and golf.”

The Lloyds were also longtime members of Zion Lutheran Church in Penbrook, Pennsylvania. Betty worked with circles of women, helping with fundraising, clothing drives, or preparing meals for receptions.

“It’s a little church,” she says. “I still belong there.”

Betty’s room in Homeland is decorated with items recalling the life she shared with her late husband. An enameled ink pot recalls his World War II service with the U.S. Air Force in China. Two duck decoys came from his time woodcarving, which he took up in retirement.

In those years, Betty and Reese were active in the woodcarving community, visiting shows where he would buy tools and books of bird images published especially for woodcarvers. They also took field glasses to nature sanctuaries around Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake Bay, for first-hand looks at migratory birds.

“He liked going out and watching the birds,” says Greg. “It was a good reason to get out and go to those places, and when the weather was bad, he would spend it in the workshop.”

“He did wonderful work,” recalls Betty. “He’d be in his workshop in the basement, and he could hear me starting to get our dinner in the evening, and then I could hear him putting his tools away. Even with his poor eyesight, he didn’t give it up for a long time. It was fascinating. I was glad he had a good hobby like that.”

Today, Betty enjoys her life at Homeland. She chats with fellow residents, follows political news, and votes regularly.

“Homeland has a lot of activities,” she says. “If you want to, you can join them and do anything you want to pick from. I always enjoy talking to people.”