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Homeland resident Bonnie Clapp: Looking out for the well-being of others

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When it was time to choose a retirement community, Bonnie Clapp knew where she wanted to live.

“I picked Homeland because I wanted a place with a good reputation,” she said. “They run a good place here.”

Since August 2022, Bonnie has been a Homeland resident–enjoying the activities and crafts, helping other residents, and approaching life with a healthy outlook.

Bonnie grew up in New Cumberland before moving to Camp Hill at age 16. Her father worked at the local Navy depot, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who sometimes worked evenings at a local store.

“I was there for my kids, too,” Bonnie said. “They’re only young once, and if you don’t get to enjoy it, you don’t get it back. I said I’d rather do without some things.”

Bonnie graduated from Cedar Cliff High School in 1962, part of the school’s second graduating class. Until the COVID epidemic, she organized her class reunions.

“I knew where all the kids were and what they did,” she said. “I loved doing that.”

In 1954, Bonnie contracted a non-paralytic form of polio, but her mother wouldn’t let her slow down. Even years later, as an adult, she climbed the Statue of Liberty spiral steps “right up to the tablet.”

“My mother never raised me to be helpless,” she recalls. “She said, ‘You try to do everything,’ and I could do everything. She had a wonderful attitude. So, if I can see it, I can do it, or I can try, anyway.”

After graduation, Bonnie attended medical arts school and worked for a doctor’s office until she started her family. That’s when she got a part-time job, working evenings in the fabric department at the former Pomeroy’s department store.

“I’m a people person,” she said. “I like to be out and about.”

At Pomeroy’s, she got a discount on fabric, plus discarded patterns for free, so she was able to enjoy her favorite pastime–sewing.

She would stay up late, making clothes for her two daughters and sometimes sewing them matching outfits. Bonnie used skills she learned from an aunt who could, and did, sew everything, including drapes made from sheets.

“She sewed coats and made hats, and she never had a sewing lesson in her life,” said Bonnie. “That woman was so talented, and I guess a little bit rubbed off on me, but not to the extreme that she did.”

Bonnie also loves volunteering. For many years, she worked with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program to teach Cumberland County senior citizens about the dangers of Medicare fraud and other scams. In 2015, she earned the Cumberland County Volunteer of the Year Award.

“I just had the time, and I loved doing it so that I couldn’t say no,” she said. “I loved the seniors, and you learn so much from them. They all have different life experiences. I met wonderful people.”

For 18 years, Bonnie worked at the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Homes for the Aging, now LeadingAge PA, performing meeting planning and public policy duties, retiring in 2003. While working for the organization, she learned about all Homeland offers and decided to make it her home.

At Homeland, Bonnie enjoys spending time with her 95-year-old roommate and joining her in numerous Homeland activities.

Bonnie loves Homeland’s beautiful chapel and the musicians who present programs every weekday.

“I can’t say I have a favorite because they have many guitarists,” she said. “They’re all good, and it’s wonderful to go to them.”

She also enjoys the holiday decorations put up by Homeland’s Board of Managers, the unique, all-women board responsible for maintaining Homeland’s renowned homelike atmosphere.

“Above the diner door, there’s a stuffed Santa Claus and packages,” said Bonnie, who used to have a Santa Claus collection. “He is so cute. Out in one of the courtyards, they have a Christmas tree all lit up. They really decorate around here to make it festive.”

Homeland resident Eufemia Cruz-Santana: Enjoying the little things

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Eufemia Cruz-Santana, Homeland resident

Eufemia Cruz-Santana loves her sweets. A candy jar sits enticingly on her windowsill, and she offers a visitor a cherry Life Saver. A few minutes later, she digs through the bowl and hands the visitor a gold-wrapped Werther’s Original with all its toffee goodness.

“Here’s the best one,” she says.

That moment of sharing encapsulates the sweet and generous nature of Eufemia. Her life hasn’t always been easy, but as her bright room full of whimsical gifts attests, she has built up a reservoir of love among her family and, now, the Homeland family that takes good care of her.

Eufemia, who grew up in Guayama, a historic beach town on Puerto Rico’s Caribbean coast, lost her father when she was 2 and her brother was 4. Her mother remarried and had more children, and when Eufemia was 15, she moved to Chicago to live with her aunt.

Before coming to Harrisburg in 1972, Eufemia, her husband, and their five children shuttled between Chicago, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico.

“Her husband came here to visit a cousin, and they liked it, so we all moved here,” says Eufemia’s daughter, Laura Segarra, of Hummelstown. “It was much better than living in an apartment in New Jersey. They liked the atmosphere.”

Eufemia came to Homeland in the spring of 2021. This fall, she celebrated a milestone birthday, her 80th, with a family party at her son’s house.

“It was a good birthday,” says Eufemia. “I always get something good.”

The windowsill in her room in Homeland’s Ellenberger memory care unit is cheery with the presents she got for that birthday.

“My daughter bought me this for my birthday,” she said, tapping a button on a teddy bear that sang happy birthday while a ball in its hands spun and lit up in different colors.

The windowsill has other gifts and mementos: a vial of sand from Atlantic City, family photos, and autumnal décor. For the holidays, Laura decorates the sill with a small Christmas tree. A toy dog curled on a dog bed is so realistic you think it’s sleeping.

“I love it,” says Eufemia. “I enjoy just seeing it.”

Eufemia raised her five children, and today she has 21 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

“I tried to do the best I could,” Eufemia says of her years raising a family.

Laura agrees. The family attended St. Francis Catholic Church in Harrisburg. The kids learned to cook, including the traditional Puerto Rican dish of rice with gandules, the legume known as pigeon peas. More importantly, Eufemia taught her children “how to respect people.”

“She taught us how to work for what you want,” says Laura. “She taught me to be who I am now, a responsible mom.”

When the weather is nice, Laura will take her mom on excursions to visit family, eat lunch, and see Eufemia’s friend, Esther. The two have been best friends since their kids were young.

“She’d do anything for me,” says Eufemia.

Eufemia looks sparkly in a shirt studded with tiny rhinestones. She wears pendants saying “Sweet Mom” and “Nana,” her grandma names, which have become the endearment everyone uses. Her fingernails are perfectly painted in a deep red – a hallmark of Homeland, where residents get regular manicures.

“It’s nice here,” Eufemia says. “I like it. The people are so nice. Everything is nice.”

Laura adds, “They really like Mommy here.”

Homeland keeps Eufemia busy with daily activities, and she enjoys it all. She is proud of the artwork she has colored in craft classes that hangs on her armoire’s doors.

“We sing,” she says. “We exercise. We play bingo.”

Laura and one of her sisters visit weekly. On this day, Laura brought her mother a lunch of sancocho, a Puerto Rican stew of vegetables and pork-neck bones, and homemade rice pudding. With Homeland watching over their mother, Laura and her siblings appreciate the peace of mind from knowing their mother is in good hands.

“When I call if there’s something wrong, right away, they get back to me,” Laura says. “If she’s not feeling well and maybe doesn’t tell anyone, I’ll call and tell them, and right away, they get on it. Whenever they do things for her, they check with me right away. We like the whole staff.”

Homeland resident Lorna Baer: Making Homeland feel like home

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Lorna Baer homeland resident

Lorna Baer first knew Homeland through her past service with the Board of Managers. When she arrived as a resident, she knew her way around.

“That’s one of the reasons I was glad to come here because it felt like home,” she says.

Today, Homeland is her home, as she lives in a bright skilled-care room where attentive staff look after her needs.

Lorna is a lifetime resident of the Harrisburg area. Her father founded the W. Orville Kimmel Funeral Home. It was first in Lorna’s grandparents’ home before they moved it to Market Street in the city. He worked hard to make it a success.

“He took his profession extremely seriously,” Lorna says.

In a bit of Harrisburg history, Lorna’s grandfather was a foreman in the machine shop of industrialist W.O. Hickok.

“Back in the day, it was very common for people to name their children after their employers,” Lorna says. So her father was named W.O. Kimmel – the “W” for Wesley, after his grandfather, but the “O” for Hickok’s middle name of Orville, the name he used.

When her father died, Lorna hired a licensed funeral director who operated the family business for 19 years. When she sold the business, she took extreme care to find the right person with an ethical approach to business.

Growing up, Lorna excelled in Harrisburg schools. At John Harris High School, she had excellent teachers with college-level skills.

“That was a happy time,” she says.

Her family was active in the Church of God, and she graduated from the church-affiliated Findlay College, in Findlay, Ohio. Lorna married a few months before graduation, and her first job brought her back to the Harrisburg School District. She served as one of the district’s home and school visitors until the position was eliminated.

Her time operating the funeral home coincided with raising three children.

“That turned out to be a wonderful gift,’’ she says. “I could be a full-time parent when it was necessary and still do my job.”

Lorna also belonged to a book club with some women serving on the Homeland Board of Managers, and they recommended her for board membership.

The Board of Managers is unique to Homeland – an all-women group dedicated to sustaining Homeland’s renowned homelike feel in its décor and events. The board traces its roots to the 18 women who founded the “Home for the Friendless” in 1867 as a refuge for Civil War widows and orphans.

Lorna served two consecutive terms and was invited to return a few years later. She has also played piano for worship services lead by Homeland Chaplain Dann Caldwell. She first played piano in elementary school, when she and two other students alternated accompanying the school orchestra, which played to begin and end every day.

As an adult, Lorna attended Paxton Presbyterian Church, the historic church dating to the 1720s. In 2009, church leaders decided to sell the church’s vacant, rarely used circa 1855 manse. The church’s legendary pastor, the Rev. Morton Glise, had raised his family in the limestone home, complete with hearth fireplace and dumbwaiter shaft.

Lorna always wanted to live in a stone house, and now, there was more.

“I was pretty sentimental about the church, and I couldn’t stand the idea of some stranger unrelated to the congregation owning the manse and using the building for something else,” she says. “So I decided I would check my resources and see if I could maybe bid on it.”

She pulled together financing for a possible purchase, with enough additional for painting and kitchen renovations. The auction on a September evening drew a crowd that stretched to the sidewalk.

“They were waiting with bated breath to find out who was going to buy it, and my bid took,” Lorna says. “So I bought it, and that’s where I lived.”

Lorna came to Homeland before COVID. Today, she enjoys her room decorated with pictures of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“I appreciate how caring a place it is,” she says. “And how nice everybody is to everybody else.”

Memories of Winnie Reese: Three daughters credit Homeland with extending their mom’s life.

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Edwina “Winnie” Reese rarely made snap decisions, so her daughters were surprised when she visited her sister at Homeland and, on the way home, asked, “What do you think of Homeland?”

“Within 48 hours, she had her house on the market, she had made all these decisions, and she gave a deposit to Homeland,” says her daughter Kathy Wilson.

Today, Winnie’s three daughters agree that Homeland extended the life and vitality of their mom, providing excellent care and socialization during her final 10 years. They also agree that their mom’s decision to live at Homeland was a gift, offering them peace of mind with knowing she was safe and secure.

Winnie’s daughters continue to support Homeland, and the two who live in Pennsylvania attended the Homeland 155th anniversary gala honoring Betty Hungerford. Winnie also left a gift for Homeland before she died in October 2021 at age 97.

Winnie dove into the life and activities of Homeland, making close friends who brought laughter to the Homeland halls—and a bit of spice to political discussions.

Winnie grew up in the Philadelphia-area town of Roxborough. She married her childhood friend and sweetheart William in 1944, and they had three daughters—Sally Herzog, and twins Bette Hoffman (who jokes about being “the middle child” because she was born first) and Kathy Wilson.

Winnie was a rarity in her time—a working mom serving as administrative assistant to the executive director of the Girl Scouts in Philadelphia. Her daughters recall her mastery of robbing Peter to pay Paul, prioritizing which bills to pay first. When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Winnie determined that her children needed a television to witness history. She bought a set on layaway at a local appliance store—and then talked the salesman into letting her take home the 150-pound “portable” while she continued to pay it off.

William died when he was only 61, after years of bad health. Ever resourceful, Winnie managed on her own. In 2011, she found her perfect fit at Homeland, enjoying the attentive staff and calling herself “blessed.” Her sister, Lou Hepschmidt, was already a well-known resident whose philanthropy included the gifts of Hummel figurines bringing cheer to spaces throughout Homeland.

For Winnie, one of Homeland’s selling points was the naturally lit, bay-windowed corner room where she stayed when visiting with her sister, and which ultimately became her personal care suite.

“There was a church across the street, and she would talk about the weddings and funerals she saw there,” says Kathy. “She stood at that window and watched elements of the community at that church and felt connected to it in some way.”

In her 23 years with the Girl Scouts, Winnie saw how hard her colleagues worked just to get by. She developed a liberal point of view and became a diehard Democrat.

“I have an Equal Rights Amendment pin she gave me in the early ’70s,” says Kathy.

With the move to Homeland, Winnie made it her mission to be a “bastion of liberalism” in central Pennsylvania, Kathy adds. In retirement, Winnie had a talent for making and keeping friends, and her Homeland friends formed into a group that would play cards—pinochle was Winnie’s favorite—and share their political views proudly. In the runup to the 2020 presidential election, they became known as “The Biden Babes,” for their vocal support of Joe Biden’s successful campaign.

“On Inauguration Day, they had their lunchtime meal in the Homeland Diner instead of in the dining room so they could watch the inauguration together,” says Bette.

Even in her final years, Winnie enjoyed her birthday parties, a 2019 Christmastime family gathering at the shore, and the day she finally met her youngest, COVID-baby, great-grandchild. That was a cold, rainy day, but she turned down Bette’s offer of a heavier jacket.

“She said, ‘My heart is so warm,’” Bette recalls. “She was holding a baby, and she was thrilled.”

On her 97th birthday, the family gathered in Homeland’s Chet Henry Memorial Pavilion.

“She had a shrimp cocktail, Jersey Mike’s hoagie, Dr. Pepper, and chocolate birthday cake, and she looked like a million bucks,” says Sally.

Just a few days later, Winnie died peacefully. Winnie never failed to praise her daughters, calling them “three of the most wonderful women you’d ever meet.”

During their mom’s decade at Homeland, Sally would take the train from Long Island to Harrisburg once a month, rent a car, spend time with her mom, and take the train home. Kathy and Bette visited together monthly from their homes in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas.

“When we would leave,” Bette recalls, “she would always say, ‘I’m the luckiest woman in the world.’”

Homeland resident Elner Mann: Loving the care she’s getting after a life of caring for others

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As a career nurse, Elner Mann worked in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and as a night nurse for a trucking company, where she once saved the life of a stricken man. A 1956 newspaper story recounts her administering first aid to a reckless driver and his passenger.

“I loved taking care of people,” she says.

Elner, known as Ellie by her friends, is a Homeland Center personal care resident who praises the staff and says her family feels better knowing she’s in good hands.

Born on a farm in the Wilkes-Barre area of Conyngham Township, her family later moved to West Pittston along the Susquehanna River, and her father worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

At G.A.R. Memorial Junior/Senior High School, Elner was active in organizing dances, including the annual “Grenadier Gambol” held in the girls’ gym. She also sang in her church choir and met her future husband, Kenneth, through church youth activities.

While Kenneth served in the Army, Elner entered the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital School of Nursing: “It was a challenge, but it was a good experience.’’

Elner and Ken married in 1956, after he served as a sergeant in the Korean War. On that day in March, a newspaper story about her wedding reported that she was “attired in a ballerina-length gown of Chantilly lace and nylon tulle over satin.”

The young couple started their family of four kids in Wilkes-Barre. They enjoyed boating and visiting local lakes, including the popular Harveys Lake. Elner worked nights in various health care settings and served on the local chapter of Tau Phi Lambda Sorority, where she was elected state president.

Around 1964, the family moved to the Harrisburg area, where Ken was sales manager for General Motors Acceptance Corp. and vice president of Titus Leasing Co.

Elner continued her nursing career, eventually working in the state Capitol doctor’s office, providing health care for members and staff of the state House and Senate. She and the friend and colleague she shared nursing duties with got the call the day that state Treasurer Budd Dwyer committed suicide in front of a room full of reporters. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do.

The Mann family lived in the Harrisburg suburb of Paxtang, where the kids could play in open fields, and everything – schools, stores, restaurants – was within walking distance. Ken served as Paxtang Borough Council president.

After Elner retired, she and Ken bought a home in a Sarasota, Florida, retirement community. They would live there from January to May, escaping the cold of Pennsylvania and returning in the spring.

“It had all the amenities you’d want – pool, clubhouse, on and on and on,” she remembers. “It was a good place.”

Ken died in 2000, and Elner came to Homeland after a 2021 health crisis. As a lifetime needleworker, she enjoys Homeland’s arts and crafts classes and has a drawing she did of a hummingbird in her room.

She lives in a spacious personal-care suite, surrounded by pictures of her great-grandchildren, who currently number five with another on the way.

“I couldn’t ask for a better place,” Elner says, adding that she enjoys Homeland’s food, especially the desserts. “They take good care of you. I think it’s a relief to all families to know that everything’s taken care of. I’m certainly comfortable.’’

Homeland resident Charles Wilson: An inveterate traveler

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Charles Wilson took a career with the former Allegheny Airlines and turned it into a lifetime of travel that has taken him to 23 countries.

Until quite recently, he was a resident of Homeland skilled care, joking with staff and rediscovering the joys of walking with help from Homeland’s physical therapy partner, Genesis Rehab Services.

As a child, Charles first lived in Johnstown before moving to the small town of Hooversville, in southwestern Pennsylvania. There, his father was a coal miner. After graduating from high school in Hooversville, he attended school in Kansas City.

He then returned to Pennsylvania, where he worked for the state Department of Labor & Industry, operating an Addressograph Multigraph. Addressographs were early and once revolutionary machines that mechanized address labeling.

At L&I, Charles met his wife, Jayne and they were married in the Hershey Rose Garden on a beautiful day in June. Today, they have been married for 60 years.

The work at L&I wasn’t very inspiring, so Charles looked for a new job at the New Cumberland airfield, making repeated visits before landing a job with Allegheny Airlines. The company would soon move to Harrisburg International Airport, and he would work for Allegheny and its successors – USAir and American Airlines – for 40 years before retiring.

“I’d have gone back any time if they would have called me,” he says.

He worked on the tarmac, fueling planes and deicing the wings in the winter.

The best benefit was free flights to the airline’s destinations for himself and his immediate family.

“It’s nice when you don’t have to pay,” he says. “My mother and father flew all the time, and it didn’t cost them a dime. My kids flew until they were 25.”

Charles has visited 23 countries, but his favorite spot was in the U.S. – Alaska.

“It was daylight all day there in the summertime,” he says. “I could get up in the morning, and the sun would be shining, and it didn’t matter when.”

He wanted to see the sun rise and set simultaneously, so he asked lots of questions about how and when to do that. He would set up a chair “and wait for it to happen.”

“It was hard to tell because when the sun was going down, it was also going up,” he says. “When it got right over the North Pole, that was when the day changed.”

At Allegheny Airlines, the board chairman would make it a point to greet every employee when he stopped in Harrisburg.

“He talked to every person,” Charles remembers. “Every single one. He bought us a meal, too.”

Today, Charles and Jayne have three children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Before and after retirement, Charles and Jayne took the opportunity to fly worldwide, taking trips once or twice a year.

“My wife didn’t like the idea of flying, but once she went, you couldn’t keep her out of planes,” Charles says. “For a woman that didn’t like flying, she sure did a lot of it.”

They have been all through Europe. Their excursions included a 10-city cruise of the Baltic Sea, including St. Petersburg and Estonia.

After his stroke, Charles spent time in a hospital, a rehab facility, and a local nursing facility while the family waited for a Homeland opening. Homeland Center’s superior quality made all the difference in his recovery.

“The therapy department has been really great,” says his daughter, Cindy Zelko, a Homeland accountant. “He’s come such a long way. He’s walking way better than when he came here. They have definitely improved his quality of life.”

Wherever he goes, he laughs and smiles.

“He’s a jokester on the unit,” says Cindy. “Everybody knows to kid around with him.”

Charles agrees that “this place is pretty darn nice to me. I like just about everything. There are a lot of good things happening here.”

Homeland’s activities offer something that everyone can enjoy. Charles especially likes the performances of Roy Justice, the “Singing Historian” whose history lessons through song help spark memories and generate intellectual engagement for the residents.

“That guy is really good,” says Charles. “He has old songs that I’ve never heard of, which was great.”

Charles looks forward to traveling again, perhaps this fall.

“I’m getting ready to get better and see if I can do something,” he says.

Since this article was prepared, Charles returned home following his rehabilitation at Homeland Center.