Tag Archive for: Resident Spotlight

Farm life was never dull for Homeland Resident Theodora Howarth

Theodora Howarth lived a good life, growing up on a farm in New Jersey. The work was endless, but, “somebody has to get those eggs from those chickens.”

“You can’t stop, because if you did, you lost everything,” the Homeland Center resident recalls. “We had a good time. We worked hard.”

And if the pregnant cat was suddenly skinny, the kids knew what to do.

“We’d go up in the hayloft and hunt for baby kittens,” she says. Sometimes, a kitten would become a pet, but others would stay in the barn, hunting for mice.

“They have to do their share,” says Theodora, who has gone by “Teddy” since childhood. “They work just as hard as we do.”

The farm in central New Jersey, near East Brunswick, had long been in Teddy’s family, worked by her grandparents and great-grandparents. It was a full-scale operation, with chickens, cows, and crops. She and her sister pitched in.

Picking strawberries was hard work, crawling between the rows on a hunt for each berry. When the corn was ripe at the large farm of her mother’s parents, “you better get out in that field and pull the corn out and run it to market, because you can’t just let it sit.” She was once milking a cow when the cow “picked up her foot and put it right in that bucket.” Sometimes, the kids would “run like crazy” from roosters “who would chase you and try to peck you. Those roosters were nasty.”

But there were fun excursions, too – sneaking into a swimming hole, or grabbing buckets to gather huckleberries and blueberries growing wild in the woods.

“They make a wonderful pie,” she says. “We were good at making pie. There was all this stuff hanging around, and you end up making jelly.”

The eating was always good, including summer corn. They would go in the cornfield, picking cobs right off the stalk, while someone stayed inside keeping the fire hot under a pot of boiling water.

“It tastes so much better than something that you buy, because you pick it and eat it the same day,” she says.

Her first name came from her grandmother on her father’s side, pronounced “Tay-o-dor-a” in its native Polish. Ask her maiden name, and she rattles it off with ease.

“J-E-N-U-S-Z-K-I-E-W-I-C-Z,” she says. “That’s it. I still remember it!”

Her husband was at first only a friend, one of the gang. He was a machinist who went to work in East Brunswick. They raised five children, and today, Teddy’s sunny room at Homeland is adorned with photos of grandkids.

At Homeland, “everybody is so nice,” she says. “It’s quiet. You can do what you pretty much want to do.”

There’s no television in her room. She spends her time reading mysteries, doing crossword puzzles, and attending Homeland activities, including exercise classes. She is known for the striking, but very warm, spiked hat she wears in the winter – a gift from a Vermonter friend.

“You should have seen the looks I got the first two months I wore it,” she says.

Growing up on that busy farm, there wasn’t much time for school activities, but Teddy was never isolated. She remembers how families watched out for one another, getting together to share lessons learned and pitching in whenever anyone needed aid.

“Everybody watched out for one another,” she says. “Everyone helps the other one. You help one another. That’s what it’s all about.”

Gloria Walters and her sister make the most of Homeland.

Gloria Walters grew up as the youngest of six children, but she was never the stereotypically spoiled baby sister.

“With six of us, the housework and the cooking, I don’t think Mom had any time to spoil any of us,” says Gloria.

Today, though, Gloria is still the youngest sibling to her eldest sister, fellow Homeland resident Fern Sucec. The two live in different wings but get together frequently, sharing memories and catching up on the day’s news and happenings.

The pair grew up in the Harrisburg-area neighborhood called Rutherford Heights, on a hilltop near the railroad tracks. Their father worked for the railroad. Every day, he would rise early and walk down the hill to work.

“There was a path, and he would walk up that path from his job,” says Gloria. “I would go up there to meet him, and I remember the one time holding his hand, and we would walk back to the house.”

Gloria and Fern’s mother was an excellent cook, and in any case, at mealtimes, “what she put in front of us, we ate. There was no fussing.” Their mother cooked “good country stuff,” Gloria recalls. Even to this day, her favorite meal is chicken pot pie, although she never learned to make the succulent mix of dough, gravy and chicken as well as her mother could.

What did all those kids do together?

“Fight,” Gloria says with a laugh. “We were together day and night. We played games and stuff. But we did fight a lot, so the main words you remember hearing from your parents were, ‘Don’t fight.’”

Fern remembers giving baths to the younger siblings, and Gloria would cry, “You got soap in my eyes.” So Fern would answer, “Well, hold still, and I won’t get soap in your eyes.”

Gloria graduated from Swatara High School, which was important to her mother. “I don’t think she graduated, so she wanted that for us,” she says.

After graduating, “You did not laze around,” Gloria recalls. “You got a job and you worked. As long as you were living in the house, you worked and gave your mother a certain amount. You didn’t take time to relax.”

Gloria got a job as a typist, a skill she learned in school, and found that she had a talent for typing not only quickly, but accurately, as well.

“It was easy for me to type fast without a lot of mistakes, and I don’t know where that comes from, except maybe that I liked typing,” she says. “If you could do both things, you were valuable at that time. I was fortunate there.”

David Skerpon, senior vice president for consumer strategies at Capital BlueCross, fondly recalled working with Gloria when he was with Mellon Bank.

“While the retail banking head at Mellon Bank, I had the pleasure of working with Gloria Walters,” Skerpon said.

“Gloria did an outstanding job supporting me as my executive assistant. Gloria was a dedicated employee with exceptional attention to detail, highly organized, and a delight to work with. Gloria could always be depended on to handle confidential business, irate customers, and employee communication professionally and courteously.’’

When asked what she likes about Homeland, Gloria, who previously served on Homeland Center’s Board of Managers, has a succinct answer: “Everything!”

She says she especially likes getting her nails done during a weekly manicure session. “It helps to make you feel dressed up,” she says.

Gloria says she also enjoys Homeland’s food and the varied activities.

“We do things and have picnics that keep us occupied,’’ she says. “Whenever anything like that comes up, we’re very excited about it. There’s always something to do. I feel very fortunate to be here.”

Mary Graves brings joy with flowers and cakes!

Mary Graves loves flowers. Her grandmother’s yard was full of flowers, and she always made sure her Harrisburg home was alive with colorful blooms.

“I’ve got roses,” she says. “I’ve got petunias and azaleas. I have so much planted, I don’t know what it is.”

A Homeland resident since earlier this year, Mary and her sister grew up in Reidsville, North Carolina, on the tobacco farm owned by her grandfather. Raised by her grandparents after her mother died, she wasn’t expected to do many chores, but she did learn to milk the cows.

After she moved to Steelton as a young mother, she found work as an LPN. Her love for flowers kept calling, and she acquired a shop in Harrisburg that sold plants. The previous owner left many of his materials behind, and she decided to learn how to use them by attending a school for flower arranging.

“I love flowers, and I love people,” she says. The shop sold flowers and arrangements for all of life’s occasions – Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, weddings, funerals. When family and friends need flowers, she is there. She worked on the flowers for a granddaughter’s wedding.

Today, she helps Homeland Board of Managers members every Friday, making the floral arrangements that grace the tables in every dining room – a charming example of the creation of Homeland’s home-like feel.

She enjoys getting together with her friends from the Red Hat Society, the organization of women who make a point of wearing red hats while going out together. She got involved through her church, where she was a member of the usher board and helped support mission work.

Mary also once took a class on cake decorating but added her special touch. They were making cakes that looked like Easter baskets and instead of using boxed cake mix, she used a recipe handed down by her great-grandmother.

“Our cake’s got a whole bunch of eggs, milk, sugar and everything else you need,” she says. “We’d make that cake from scratch, and grandma sifted that flour four times.”

Mary and her cakes become so popular that she made them for family and friends. She once made 32 Barbie cakes – the types with a doll at the top and the cake serving as the skirt – for all the guests at her granddaughter’s sixth birthday party. For a grandson, she made a cake football field, complete with football.

Even for her 85th birthday, celebrated at Homeland, Mary’s daughter-in-law made the special cake for family and friends to enjoy.

When Board of Managers member Karen Ball delivered a cheery birthday card that day, Mary told her that she’s happy to usher in her 86th year, following in the footsteps of a great-grandmother, who lived to 117.