Tag Archive for: Resident Spotlight

Ellen and Bill Wismer are lifelong gardeners whose passion followed them to Homeland, where the grounds are lush and welcoming.

“The garden out front is just gorgeous,” said Ellen. “When it’s not hot, we go out there and enjoy it immensely. When you go to dinner, there are always fresh flowers on the table, and you feel like you’re in a big bed and breakfast.”

The Wismers made their way to Homeland from Lititz, their longtime home. Over the years, Lititz has grown from a small town into a hub for renowned musical artists and vendors, thanks to Rock Lititz, a venue that supports touring productions.

A Wismer son, now a rigging provider for major events, got his start at Rock Lititz, and all the Wismer children grew up with the family of the founders of Rock Lititz.

“Our town has always been appreciative of them because they’ve never forgotten the town,” she said. “They’ve always supported the town. Always when there’s an event, they’re there.”

The Wismers’ other son is a gastroenterologist in Erie, married to a professor at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. The Wismers’ daughter passed away in 2023.

Their accomplished grandchildren include a granddaughter who lives nearby. She filled their bright, spacious corner suite in Homeland Personal Care with family photos, favorite furniture, and serendipitous thrift-store finds, including a drop-leaf table snugged perfectly outside the kitchen.

“Our granddaughter made sure that we took these things along so it would look like our home,” Ellen said.

Ellen graduated from Manheim Township. High School. She had transferred there as a junior because their commercial course would prepare her for a career in business, and her parents agreed.

Bill graduated from Hershey High School, where he studied to become an electrician. They met when she broke up with a friend of his, and he began calling her.

“I figured she was beautiful, and I had nothing to lose,” he says.

They married a year later, at age 18, and have been married for 69 years, since March 1956.

“If there was any big secret to our marriage, he always had my back, and I always had his trust,” Ellen says.

Bill worked as an electrician, starting in institutional projects such as schools before progressing to heavy construction in nuclear power plants and bridges.

“It was fun,” he says. He jokes that he could climb atop bridges because he had wings, but when it came to following safety protocol, “There was no doubt about it.”

He used his handyman skills in their Lititz home, building a rec room and sunroom. Their backyard blossomed with impatiens, lobelia, and vines every summer – a space so serene that it featured on a Lititz garden tour.

Ellen loved her years at home, raising the kids, with “the PTAs, the sub sales, the Brownies and Boy Scouts.” However, she had worked for Armstrong World Industries before having children, and in 1977, she returned to her former employer.

She worked for 12 years in human resources and was then promoted to sales at Armstrong Insulation, where she stayed for 13 years.

“I was very pleased with it, and I felt very good about it,” she says. “We met a lot of wonderful people.”

The Wismers have traveled over the years, including a trip to Tahiti for their 30th anniversary.

“That was exceptional,” said Bill.

“I was amazed at the lush green in the trees, the bushes, the grass,” she said. “They had to mow the pastures because the cattle couldn’t eat it fast enough.”

Annual vacations took the family to Ocean City, MD, where the kids built wonderful memories of the boardwalk and jumping into the waves.

“They don’t remember the big things you bought them,” Ellen said. “It didn’t matter whether you lived in a great, big home. To them, the time we had as a family was the most important thing.”

The Wismers came to Homeland in February 2025. It is, said Ellen, “one of the nicest places you could be.”

“They really care about you,” she said. “Plus, this place is immaculate. Their housekeeping is unbelievable. The laundry is fabulous. They take good care of everything, and the food is good. The nurses really try to see that you get taken care of.”

They enjoy the activities, including music presentations, a Mother’s Day “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and Father’s Day “Bratwursts and Brews.” The Board of Managers’ springtime high tea was fabulous.”

“The place is extraordinary,” said Bill.

“There are so many little things that make it home,” added Ellen. “You’re in a family setting. You get to know people, and they’re really friends.”

Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.

Carmen Vishnesky, a cherished resident of Homeland Center, passed away on March 25, 2025. We remember her with deep affection and gratitude for the vibrant spirit she shared with our community.

As a resident of Homeland since early 2023, Carmen Vishnesky has come to love the people. 

“The residents are great,” Carmen said. “Certainly, the workers are exemplary. I don’t have any relatives, and I don’t know what I would have done without the people here.”  

Carmen grew up in rural Mountoursville, PA. Her father worked for Sylvania, which made Kodak Instamatic’s rotating flash cube for cameras, then later traveled as an analyst for a vending machine company. Her mother, a trained classical pianist with a music degree from Lycoming College, traveled the area with a violinist friend, playing at events. 

Carmen studied with her mother’s teacher and became an accomplished pianist herself, but she stopped playing when she attended Bloomsburg State College (now Bloomsburg University) to concentrate on her studies as a French major.  

She also earned her master’s degree from Millersville State College (now Millersville University), then known for its foreign language school. This led to a 35-year career teaching French in the Central Dauphin School District. Outside of the classroom, she found her niche running the high school drama program.  

Carmen met her husband, a physics teacher and assistant principal, and they married in 1981. Though she had never been a sports fan, she “inherited” the world of Penn State football fandom from him. They attended games in the slush and snow in their early years together, but she said she ultimately drew the line in attending games after October. 

 “At that time, he went with his friends or with his son,” she said with a smile, “Then he wanted to sit home and watch it on TV with me.” 

After her husband retired, he pursued his passion for cooking by teaching at the Carlisle Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School. She was still teaching when he suddenly announced that he wanted to attend a culinary school in France. Before he left, she taught him two French words: “rouge” for “red” and “blanc” for “white.” 

“I knew nothing about wine, but I told him that when they asked him about this vintage or that, he could just say ‘red’ or ‘white,’” she said. “That’s as sophisticated as it gets. We laughed about that forever.” 

Today, Carmen looks back at her “wonderful life.” When she retired, she and her husband traveled together. They went to France multiple times, especially loving the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean region of Camargue, where horses frolic in salt flats. The pair also traveled to Poland and Southeast Asia.  

In Budapest, they rented an apartment and lived like locals, even though they didn’t speak Hungarian.  

“I loved the food,” she said. “I loved walking across the street to the market and pointing to whatever I needed to buy. It was just wonderful. The people were wonderful.” 

At Homeland, Carmen originally lived in skilled care before moving to a spacious end unit in personal care. Here, she indulges her childhood love of classical music. On days of “Piano with Ralph” during lunchtime, she and her friends at the table enjoy a dose of the classics. 

“He plays Rachmaninoff,” she said. “He knows Italian music. He knows Beethoven.” 

She also enjoys Homeland’s cooking classes and was looking forward to an empanada-making class with the Homeland activities staff. 

“I told them I’d just been to a Mexican restaurant and the restaurant’s empanadas were not nearly as good as ours,” she said. 

Homeland Center offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900. 

Sue and Steve Valoczki spend a lot of time joshing around with Homeland staff. 

“The staff is very nice,” said Steve. “They’re interactive and make sure you’re comfortable. They have a good sense of humor. I have to be on my toes for them.” 

“They tease us a lot,” added Sue.  

Since coming to Homeland in February 2024, the Valoczkis have settled into spacious adjoining rooms in personal care. The stylish décor in Steve’s room includes ceramics collected over the years and an antique trunk converted to a coffee table. 

Steve immigrated to the United States from Germany when he was five years old. When Steve arrived in Detroit, Steve’s father worked in a steel mill and his mother worked in food service.  

Steve’s Hungarian father and his German mother met in a displaced persons camp after World War II. His father, a proud Hungarian who hated the Nazis and the Communists, was conscripted to command tanks for the German Army. After leading in 44 tanks in Stalingrad, he was told to stay there waiting for supplies.  

Instead “he got up one day, got all his guys together, and said, ‘Menjünk haza,’ which is Hungarian for, ‘Let’s go home,’” said Steve. “He turned those tanks around and went back to Hungary. He gave himself up to the English and sat in that camp until the war ended.” 

From his father, Steve learned never to give up. 

“My father lost his leg in an industrial accident,” he said. “He healed and went right back to work.” 

Sue grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with three sisters, including a twin. Her father, who was in advertising, created a famous Chevy commercial showing a car floating down a raft in the Grand Canyon. She was a high school athlete, competing in “all the sports – tennis, basketball, lacrosse, swimming.” At 17, she and her twin took up competitive sailing.  

“Then we’d go to the regattas at night and have a fun party,” she said.  

Sue and Steve met at Ferris State University in Michigan. 

“He was a lot of fun, and we were pretty much a hot couple on campus,” Sue said. “We had a good time together.” 

They got married in 1971. Jobs were tight. Steve graduated in 1970, but through a fraternity brother, he got a job with a distributor of Gallo wines just when Gallo was amping up its marketing efforts 

Steve embraced the work and stayed in wine and spirits sales for his career. The couple lived in Detroit, Wisconsin, Miami Beach, Chicago, and West Chester, PA. In Miami, Steve acquired accounts that even the top executives couldn’t crack “just by service and showing up.”  

The jobs took the couple all over the world. Throughout Europe, they were treated royally, with five-course meals and behind-the-scenes tours of wineries. In a wine cellar in Spain, Steve lightly touched a bottle high up, and suddenly, they started rattling.  

“My heart stood still,” Steve says now. Luckily, the bottles stayed in place.  

Sue had a successful career in banking. Aside from the “exciting times” — her term for the two robberies she experienced — she was responsible for growing the business and connecting with various people. 

While living in West Chester, the couple raised their children: a daughter who is now a cardiac intensive care unit nurse and a son who played football at Penn State and today sells medical devices. Their five grandchildren inherited their grandmother’s athleticism, playing softball, field hockey, and football. 

At Homeland, the Valoczkis’ constant companion is Rue, their personable, seven-year-old rescue Jack Russel terrier. The first time they met her, she hopped onto the picnic table where the Valoczkis were sitting and kissed Steve on the nose. 

Sue keeps dog treats handy for staff to give Rue.  

“We should get some sort of compensation because the people here love her,” she joked. “She’s like a therapy dog. She really does bring a lot of comfort to people.”