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Homeland Center residents’ Pearl Harbor memories resonate with college students

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World War II took loved ones. It opened doors to opportunity, service, and sacrifice. It was a time when many Homeland residents matured quickly from children to adults, and it all started with the bombing of the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.

On Dec. 7, 2015, Homeland Center residents gathered in the chapel to share memories of the “date which will live in infamy” with students from Central Penn College. The students then recalled the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., and the two generations bonded over the impact that national crises had on their lives.

“I was the first boy to be drafted from my school, and I finished,” said Homeland resident Don Englander. “I was one of the lucky ones.”

The Central Penn College students belonged to Rotaract, a Rotary Club initiative for 18-to-30-year-olds. The Homeland visit was the first community service project by the new club, sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg North.

About a dozen residents shared their Pearl Harbor memories with seven students. Resident Harry Zimmerman was 13 years old, living in Harrisburg, when he heard newsboys outside, shouting about their extra editions.

“It was a different world back then,” he said. “We didn’t even have electricity.”

Vivian Black’s future husband, stationed at Pearl Harbor’s Hickam Field, first thought the planes droning overhead were “no big deal,” and he went back to sleep.

“Then they woke him up, and he was dressed in a couple of minutes and out on the field with the other soldiers,” Black said.

Arthur Lloyd, already in the service and attending radio school, was taking a break with his buddies, all wearing civilian clothes for a day at the skating rink. When they heard the news, he told his friends to enjoy their civvies, “because we’re going to be in uniform the rest of the war.”

One resident couldn’t finish her story, thinking of the brother she lost in the war. Another remembered her brother-in-law, who survived a naval attack off the coast of South America, only to lose his life on D-Day.

Rotaract Club President Mallar Peters, of Lake George, NY, said the emotional tug of Pearl Harbor resonated with him because 9/11 influenced his decision to enroll in Central Penn College’s homeland security program.

“I thought, ‘What can I do to help?’” he said to approving murmurs from the residents. “I thought that working in national security, helping with terrorist threats, would be a good career choice for me.”

After learning that one resident didn’t hear from loved ones in the service for six weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, student Ashlyn Bartlebaugh said the World War II generation “had it harder.”

“I can’t even imagine the mental torment they went through, and to be strong enough to share that,” she said. “I’m very appreciative they were willing to share.”

Homeland resident Caroline Cruys reminded the students that Pearl Harbor, just like 9/11, “was a shocking thing to go through.”

“We ask, ‘How could this happen?’” she said. “But it did, and we survived, and we thank God for that.”

Duets by Homeland pastor and his father brighten monthly service

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Luminous, late-morning sunlight streamed across the patterned carpet of the chapel of Homeland Center one recent Wednesday in early autumn — so much so that resident Ray Caldwell, 85, politely asked for the blinds to be drawn.

Rev. Dann Caldwell and his father, Ray, sing together at Homeland Center’s monthly Wednesday morning prayer service.

As he faced 12 of his fellow residents and prepared to sing by the stone altar and marble columns, the golden sunlight was blinding.

It was an apt prelude to the Gospel message expounded upon in a strong, soothing voice by Ray’s son, Rev. Dann Caldwell, chaplain of Homeland Hospice: that the Lord is the light of the world. Then, together, father and son sang “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”

The father-son vocal performance is often one of the highlights of the monthly Wednesday morning prayer service.

The duo sang often as part of a musical family, when Pastor Dann led Charlton United Methodist Church in Lower Paxton Township.  Dann’s mom Betty, who still lives in the family home, sings tenor as part of the Sweet Adelines, and both Dann’s brother Rick and son, Peter, sing as well.

Three generations of Caldwells once performed the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” during Fourth of July services at his Lower Paxton church, when Dann’s son Peter, now 15, was only 4.

“That‘s one of my father’s favorite hymns,” said Dann.  “And that’s one of my special memories,” as he recited the famous words—“Mine eyes have seen the glory….”

Both Ray’s brothers were veterans of World War II.

“It’s great to have anyone to sing with, but when it’s with your family member, it’s even more meaningful,’’ said Ray, who has been a Homeland resident since early April.

Throughout the prayer service, the residents listened with heads bowed in prayer, or gazed attentively toward the golden cross in the front, and often called out song requests from the large spiral hymnals they held.

Together the residents, who gathered before the altar in neat rows, sang moving renditions of “Because my Savior Lives,” “Shall We Gather at the River,” “Stand up, Stand up for Jesus,” “In the Garden,” and “Take Time to be Holy,” in between the recitation of prayers and Gospel readings.

“The service lifts my spirits,’’ said Vivian Black, an active volunteer and resident at Homeland.  In the past 10 years, Vivian lost both her daughter and her husband.

“For me, it’s an absolute necessity that I come here,” she said, thinking of her recent losses.  “What do I have? This is my home, the people I love.”

She especially embraces the hymn, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” because it reassures her that God is watching her, and one day she will be reunited with her husband and daughter.

Faye Dunkle, 91, dressed smartly in a cocoa brown suit, with matching pearl earrings and necklace, said she knows Dann, his wife and son, and his dad and mom from the old church.

“He has such a wonderful singing voice and is such a wonderful man,” said Dunkle, whose sister was also a Homeland resident. “I am so thankful for this chapel.”

Harrisburg police chief takes a dunk for Homeland Center at Summertime Fair

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Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter, sitting in the dunk tank, teased Richard Wise.

Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter, who volunteered to help raise money by getting dunked, said he appreciates the prominent role Homeland Center plays in the community.

“You can’t throw,” Carter told the Steelton boy. Richard responded with a pitch that hit the target and sent Carter into the water.

Carter’s dunk tank appearance was the featured event at Homeland Center’s annual Summertime Fair, held Aug. 1, 2015. When Homeland staff met and exceeded his challenge to raise $7,500 for the resident activities fund, he took his perch on the dunking seat.

(See the PennLive coverage here)

Carter said he believes in Homeland’s mission and appreciates its prominent role in the same Harrisburg community where it was founded in 1867 as the “Home for the Friendless.”

“They are still friendly to the neighborhood,” Carter said. “They have a vested interest. I have that same vested interest. We have a natural love for the city.”

Homeland hires much of its staff from the surrounding community, where “neighbors look out for neighbors, and there’s very little to no crime,” said Carter, dressed in a sleeveless t-shirt and athletic shorts for his plunge. The dunking offered “an opportunity for people to meet the chief without all the official stuff on,” he said.

The total $8,500 raised before Carter’s dunking supports a range of activities, including music therapy for residents in the dementia and Alzheimer’s unit and in skilled care. Music therapy has helped Homeland reduce the use of psychotropic medications for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients below suggested federal levels.

“Our residents always look forward to spending time with members of the community,” said Barry Ramper II, Homeland President and CEO, who took the plunge after Chief Carter.

Monroe Rockmaker, of Harrisburg, attending the Summertime Fair with his mother, said she receives very good care and “seems very content. She seems to be at peace.” Music therapy, offered weekly by professional music therapists to improve cognition and interaction, reconnects his mother with the music she has enjoyed all her life.

Rockmaker recalled one session when a harp player brought a visible reaction from his mother, a classical music lover.

“You could feel the happiness,” he said.

Later in the afternoon, resident Carol Cruys took aim at another celebrity in the dunking seat – Homeland Center President and CEO Barry S. Ramper II. Like Carter, Ramper promised to be dunked if staff met the $7,500 fundraising goal.

Cruys tells everyone she meets that Homeland is “the place to be.”

“If you know somebody that needs help, this is the best place,” Cruys said. “Come and visit us, and you’ll see how great it is. There’s nothing you can’t like. They take excellent care of you.”

Amid the laughs of the crowd, Ramper took many falls into the tank, as children and Homeland residents sometimes got help with pushing the release button. After his 30-minute session ended, Ramper thanked Chief Carter for also getting dunked.

“He’s fully committed to Homeland,” Ramper said. “He and the entire Harrisburg Police Department are fully committed. They do an outstanding job, not only for us but for the city.”

Ramper said the annual fair is an event anticipated by Homeland’s residents and neighbors alike. Money raised through the fair and other efforts helps Homeland continue to provide unmatched service in the challenging health care environment, he said.

“Our residents always look forward to spending time with members of the community,’’ said Barry S. Ramper II, Homeland’s president and CEO. “The fair also provides an opportunity for visitors to learn about Homeland and see the quality care that is available for their loved ones.’’

Two residents recount service during World War II, Korea during Veterans Day luncheon

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For F.M. Richard Simons, volunteering to fight during World War II was a way of giving back to the country that had welcomed his grandparents.

“They say it’s a great experience but one I’d never want to do again,” said F.M. Richard Simons, who saw combat in Italy during World War II.

The Korea War was in full force when a friend from nursing training convinced Marianna Bjurstrom to join the Air Force. To Bjurstrom, who was 24, it sounded like a way to make her dreams of traveling and seeing the world come true.

While the paths that led Simons and Bjurstrom to military service were far different, both said they were proud to serve and treasure the friendships they made along the way.

Simons and Bjurstrom spoke during a special Veterans Day luncheon at Homeland Center. Before the lunch, the 30 residents who are veterans received red carnations to commemorate their service.

“They say it’s a great experience but one I’d never want to do again,’’ said Simons, who at 19 served with the famed 10th Mountain Division and saw combat in Italy from 1944 until the end of the war. “You build a real comradery; friendships that help keep you alive and stay with you.’’

When World War II ended, F.M. Richard Simons finished his Army service as a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio.

Though the 10th Mountain initially trained in Colorado’s mountains to fight as ski troops, when the Allies entered Italy it was the division’s mountain climbing abilities and sheer guts that were called upon. Simon’s first taste of combat came in the taking of Mt. Belvedere in Italy’s Alpine Mountains, a fight that would cost almost a thousand of the division’s troops.

“The Germans were expecting us. It’s not like in the movies – it’s much worse; you’re walking into one of the most horrendous experiences,’’ said Simons, who clearly remembers the first of his friends to die, Francis Lowery.

“We all came together from training in Texas, about five of us, and Lowery was the first to go, stepped on a landmine,’’ Simons said, adding seeing friends die is something you never get used to. “To me he’s always going to be 19 years old.’’

Simons, who is Jewish, only learned of the atrocities committed by the Nazis after the war. But during one battle, a lieutenant went down the line asking if any of the soldiers were Jewish and told them to hide their dog tags, which were stamped with an “H’’ for Hebrew.’’

“He said don’t wear your dog tags because if the Germans captured you they would set you on fire,’’ Simons said. “I look back and think how lucky I am to be alive; it was so easy to die.’’

Near the war’s end in Europe, Simons broke his ankle, which prevented him being shipped to the Pacific, where the war against Japan was raging. Then a staff sergeant, Simons spent his final months overseas as a disc jockey for the Armed Forces Radio.

When he returned home, Simons used the GI Bill to finish college and later founded Simons Insurance Agency, now run by his daughter, Ruth, under the name Simons & Company. He also became involved in politics, serving on Harrisburg’s City Council in the mid-1980s.

Marianna Bjurstrom served as an Air Force flight nurse during the Korean War.

Marianna Bjurstrom got her wish to see a good part of the world as a flight nurse caring for soldiers wounded in Korea, who were initially evacuated to Japan. Bjurstrom, another nurse and a Navy corpsman would fly from Japan to Hawaii (with stops and Midway and Guam) and then stateside to San Francisco. During the long Pacific flights they usually cared for about 20 patients.

“We saw fractures from gunshot wounds and other injuries. Sometimes they were paralyzed in some way and would be on a frame that we would turn every two hours so they could have some change in their circulation,’’ she said.

“One time I was doing private duty for a patient who wasn’t expected to make it make it and I kept talking to him and just before we landed he woke up,’’ said Bjurstrom, who never had a patient die on one of her flights. “I’m most proud of treating that man until he woke; that really made me feel that I was doing something.’’

When she left the Air Force in 1952 as a first lieutenant, Bjurstrom moved home before coming to the Harrisburg area with her husband. This mother of four girls was an emergency room nurse prior to working for Pennsylvania Blue Shield as a claims review specialist until she retired in 1986.

Bjurstrom said she approves of the expanding role women have in the military and may even have thought of making a career of the service had those opportunities existed in the 1950s.

“I think it’s great because it’s time for women to have their place in this world,’’ said Bjurstrom, who added that she feels it is important to observe Veteran’s Day – for those who served and for those still serving.

“We gave up some of our own interests to serve our country,’’ Bjurstrom said. “I think we should be recognized for that.’’

Homeland’s CEO makes a big splash at Summertime Fair

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Homeland resident Mary Peterson, assisted by caregiver Chris Fulton, gets ready to dunk Barry Ramper.

Homeland resident Mary Peterson, assisted by caregiver Chris Fulton, gets ready to dunk center President and CEO Barry Ramper II.

Barry S. Ramper II begged Mary Peterson not to hit the button that would send him into the dunk tank. The center’s president and CEO playfully wagged a finger and urged her to rethink what she was about to do.

Ignoring Ramper’s pleas, Mary hit the button and to the delight of the crowd at Homeland Center’s 2014 Summertime Fair, Ramper dropped into the waiting four feet of water.

The dunking resulted from a promise Ramper made weeks earlier: If $5,000 was raised for the residents’ activities fund before the Aug. 9 fair, he would take the plunge.

An anonymous donor contributed the entire $5,000, putting Homeland well on the way to its goal of raising $10,000 from the fair. Additional money was raised at the event from a white elephant sale, refreshments and tickets to the fair’s games and attractions.

“What you have done is given us an opportunity to provide more activities for our residents,’’ a thoroughly soaked but smiling Ramper said of the donor’s generous gift. “The fund helps us provide a broad range of life-enriching social experiences.’’

Through the activities fund, residents have gone to Phillies and Steelers games; visited the Baltimore Aquarium and Longwood Gardens; attended local theater; and toured historic sites in Gettysburg and Hershey. The fund helps cover the cost to bring in local performers as well as music therapists and art instructors.

Barry Ramper said he would go in the dunk tank if $5,000 was raised before the fair. An anonymous donor contributed the entire amount.

Generous support from donors throughout the Harrisburg region to the center’s endowment fund has made it possible for Homeland to continue its 147-year history of community service. No resident has ever been turned away because of financial distress; in the last fiscal year, Homeland provided more than $2 million in charitable and benevolent care.

Chartered as the Home for the Friendless in 1867, Homeland originally sheltered women and homeless children, focusing on Civil War widows and orphans. Today, Homeland is recognized as one of Central Pennsylvania’s top personal care and skilled nursing facilities, earning Medicare’s highest five-star rating for quality in care, staffing, and safety.

Homeland Hospice ensures patients nearing their life’s end are free of pain and able to spend quality time with their loved ones. Care occurs in the setting wherever a person calls home. Homeland Hospice’s services include a pediatric palliative care program.

After taking a shot at dunking Ramper, Dr. Donald B. Freedman, Homeland’s first medical director, said the center has grown in amazing ways.

“This place gets better all the time,” said Freedman, who came to Homeland in 1961 and served on the medical staff for 50 years. “It’s unbelievable. All the new things that go on up here – it’s great.”

Tara Roland, a housekeeper at Homeland for 14 years, said there is a special relationship between the staff and the residents. Roland, like a majority of Homeland’s staff, lives in the immediate neighborhood.

“I just love the people I work with and the residents,” said Roland. “Everybody gets along here. When the residents see that you care, that’s a good thing.”

21 French high school students touring area

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The students and their teacher were from Lyon, a city in southeast France with which Governor Tom Corbett’s office has an economic and cultural exchange program. Working with the governor’s office, Harristown Development Corp. coordinated the trip. Harristown, which owns and operates the downtown Strawberry Square retail and office complex, promotes social and economic activity in the Capital.

During their visit to Homeland, the students met with Barry S. Ramper II, Homeland’s president and CEO, and had the opportunity to ask questions ranging from the kind of training the center’s staff receive to how care is paid for in the U.S.

Ramper explained that Homeland prides itself on treating residents like honored guests in a hotel and said he looked to the lessons of the hospitality industry in how a senior care center should be run.

“We know that we’re not going to replace someone’s home, so we try to provide the next-best experience,” Ramper told the students, who also toured Homeland. “We want to provide our resident the experience of being in a great hotel.”

Ramper also explained how residents either can pay privately, through insurance or Medicare, which has given Homeland its top five-star rating for top-quality care.

He also said Homeland takes pride in the fact that no resident has ever been asked to leave because of lack of funds, something made possible through generous donations made by members of the community that maintains the facility’s endowment.

Chartered as the Home for the Friendless in 1867, Homeland originally sheltered women and homeless children, including Civil War widows and orphans. Today, Homeland Center continues its traditional service as a personal care home and skilled nursing facility, with 50 state-of the-art personal care suites, 71-bed skilled care unit, and a 21-bed Alzheimer’s and dementia unit.

In keeping with its dedication to serving the community, Homeland Center established Homeland Hospice to help patients in the end stages of life and provide emotional support for their families.

Ramper said he welcomed the chance to talk to the students about the center and how senior care is provided.

“We very much appreciated the opportunity for them to visit Homeland Center” Ramper said. “The questions they asked were a reflection of their desire to learn, and understand, our philosophy at Homeland Center, and the systems within our society to assist our seniors.”