Tag Archive for: Resident Spotlight

Homeland resident, Marie Andrews, relaxing in her suite.

In 1934, Marie Andrews’ father started a tradition in Lykens, Pennsylvania, that continues to this day.

To thank the customers of his hardware store and electrical appliance repair shop, Richard Klinger outfitted a sound truck with evergreens, sat on top wearing a Santa Claus suit, and drove through the town, distributing candy and oranges to children.

In the years to come, the truck would be “electrically decorated,” in the words of one newspaper account, and tour the towns of northern Dauphin County. For more than 75 years, three generations of the Klinger family kept the tradition alive, and it continues today with their support and under the auspices of Lykens Borough. Cowboy singer Gene Autry even sent Marie’s dad a thank-you letter for featuring his recording “Here Comes Santa Claus.”

“It’s still called ‘Klinger’s Float,’ and it still goes out on Christmas Eve,” Marie said. The annual event took a lot of work on the family’s part. Marie remembers the first year when she bagged peanuts to be handed out.

Graduating from high school in 1943, she learned of a wartime program paying for nurses’ training. Harrisburg would have been close, but she figured if she could go anyplace for the training, why not try Philadelphia?

“I don’t know how I had the guts to do it,” she said. First, she applied at a Philadelphia hospital where a friend was studying. When that program accepted her right away, she thought, “If they would take me without even knowing me, maybe Penn would take me.”

She had to pass a lot of tests, but she made it into the University of Pennsylvania. It was an excellent program, with thorough training and strict standards. By the time she graduated, the war was over. Back in central Pennsylvania, she married and had her sons.

Marie worked at several jobs until becoming a school nurse in Central Dauphin School District, outside of Harrisburg, where she stayed for 28 years.

“I liked being with the kids,” she said. “It was an interesting job. There were lots of nice people to work with.”

Her sons attended Central Dauphin schools and, apparently inheriting their grandfather’s handyman genes, studied engineering in college. They both live in the Harrisburg area, and Marie now has four grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and a third on the way.

From her cheery personal care suite at Homeland, Marie likes to knit. Family members receive gifts such as a stocking cap in Philadelphia Eagles green and white, or a receiving blanket for the new baby.

She has lived happily at Homeland since 2012. She enjoys volunteering in Homeland’s library, as well as taking exercise classes and attending music events. From her window, she watches birds in the trees, including a cardinal that sometimes shows up.

“We do a lot of nice things,” she said. “I go on the shopping trips. I do well. I have a lot of friends. I’m very comfortable here.”

Korea. Honolulu. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Yuma, Arizona. El Centro, California. Arlington, Virginia. Carlisle. Six elementary schools. Three high schools.

Homeland resident Polly Myers saw the USA and beyond, even before she graduated from high school. Her father, a West Point graduate, was a career Army engineer whose assignments took the family around the globe.

Through it all, Polly made friends and learned to adjust. Polly, who came to Homeland in 2014 and has served on the Board of Managers, said she loves Homeland’s warm and attentive atmosphere.

“Everyone is friendly,’’ said Polly, who is in the Skilled Care wing. “The staff cares, and it shows.’’

It was while studying economics at Wellesley College that Polly suddenly became a Central Pennsylvania resident.

While planning a trip home to Arlington, she received a call telling her that her parents were now living in Carlisle. It proved a fateful move: during another break, an acquaintance introduced her to Bob Myers, the man she would marry.

“He was a charmer,” she said. “Bob and I just had a good time.” One night, they met in New York, where she raged about a speaker at school who said that businesses shouldn’t hire women. In response, Bob said, “I have a job in mind for you. Taking care of me.”

Back among her Wellesley friends, a heated debate ensued. Was Polly engaged or not? Some thought yes. Some thought no.

“Bob called later that night and said he told his parents he was engaged,” said Polly. “So, then I decided it really was a proposal.”

They married days after Polly graduated. It was the beginning of quite a journey. They bought a home in Camp Hill, learning the night of settlement that Bob’s great-grandfather had built it. While their three children were still young, he was diagnosed with a form of bone marrow cancer and given only a few years to live.

At the same time, Polly’s best friend, Joanne Wickersham, was fighting breast cancer. Joanne’s son-in-law played for the NFL’s Houston Oilers, and the team doctor got her an appointment at a top treatment center in Houston. Polly sat with her friend through chemo. When she saw the advanced care provided there, she thought that maybe they could help her husband.

Bob would go on to beat cancer. Joanne did not. One night, during an impromptu visit, Joanne’s home-care nurse asked Polly to hold Joanne while she changed the sheets. Polly apologized to Joanne, saying she knew how much it would hurt.

“She looked at me and said, ‘You never could hurt me,’” Polly recalled, her voice choking with emotion.
“I pulled her to me, and she died. The nurse said that she felt free to go because I was holding her.”

Bob, a lawyer, entered politics after his cancer diagnosis. As a Democrat, he had lost a close race for district attorney. Then, party officials asked him to run for Congress, believing that President Lyndon B. Johnson would sweep back into office and pull in Democrats on his coattails.

“That’s fine,” said Polly, “but I don’t think LBJ is going to run again.” She was right, and Bob lost by 10,000 votes. When a state Senate seat opened, he finally got his term in office, serving in the state’s upper chamber from 1974 to 1976.

“He loved it,” she said of her husband, who died in 1993. “He was so good at it.”

As a family, with their son and two daughters, they vacationed at the beach and in the mountains. Now with seven grandchildren, Polly enjoys watching football and college basketball. At Homeland, she made a dear friend in former dietitian Paula Barker. Every other Thursday, Paula makes a meal using recipes Polly finds and they eat together at Homeland’s classic 1950s-style diner.

“I realize how lucky I’ve been,” she said. “I’m just comfortable here.”

Sometimes, high school sweethearts blossom into sweethearts for a lifetime.

Colleen and Lester Grotzinger knew each other from around their high school in the northcentral Pennsylvania town of Renovo. At a New Year’s Eve Party, they started talking, which led to their first date.

Today, the recent Homeland residents savor 66 active and adventurous years together

Married in 1951, Colleen had just graduated from college, and Lester had just finished basic training after his Pittsburgh-based National Guard battalion activated for service. The Korean War was underway, but the Army didn’t send Lester to Korea. He served in anti-aircraft artillery installations along the East Coast.

“Most people don’t even know that at one point, U.S. cities were protected by anti-aircraft artillery,” he says. “The U.S. was afraid of Russia bombing East Coast cities.”

While he served two years in the Army, Colleen lived in off-base apartments or back home in Renovo. When he left the service, he finished his studies at Carnegie Mellon University and launched a career as a mechanical engineer.

Les always knew he wanted to be an engineer. Growing up, he helped his dad around the house, building things and trying to understand how they worked. He devoted his career to a company that manufactured equipment – often rotating, high-speed compressors, steam turbines, and gas turbines – for chemical plants and refineries.

“They were big machines,” he says “Some of them were up to 200,000 horsepower. I had a very good career.”

Colleen was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who majored in elementary education. In those days, she says career choices for women were limited to teaching or nursing. At Penn’s exclusive Wharton School of Business, women weren’t even allowed in the building. When the Grotzingers returned to Penn for her 50th reunion, the group was waiting for a visit by the university president. The president’s car pulled up, and out stepped a woman.

“Things have changed just a little bit,” Les remarked to Colleen.

Today, adds Colleen, “I have grandchildren going there now.”

Colleen taught language arts in a middle school. Some say that’s a difficult age to teach, but she learned to have fun with her students.

“They were funny, in a comical way,” she says. “They want to make each other laugh, but they also made me laugh.”

Living in the southwestern Pennsylvania town of Greensburg, she was active in the League of Women’s Voters. For 35 years, both were active in a book club that read “anything and everything,” Colleen says, and even sometimes gathered on New Year’s Eve to do a play reading.

They also took on the challenge of renovating a fixer-upper, which they purchased after Les got out of the Army and had little money. With his skills as a handyman, he did much of the work, replacing windows and wiring, plumbing and ductwork.

“Everything Colleen wanted, we added in one fell swoop,” Les says. “A big addition for a living room and a fireplace and a two-car garage and a patio, all in one swoop.”

Les’ work took him around the world, sometimes to remote spots in North Africa or western Canada. When it was possible, Colleen came along. They have traveled to all 50 states, plus Canada, the Caribbean, England, and Europe. In Germany, they visited the Bavarian village of Lester’s ancestors. In Ireland, they met relatives of Colleen’s still living in the family homestead near the Cliffs of Moher.

Colleen couldn’t pick a favorite spot among their travels. She’d be happy to “go back to any of them.” Lester recalled a memorable trip to Italy, where he appreciated “the culture and the openness of the society.”