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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.

Homeland resident Lois Hartman: A relaxing time in Personal Care

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Lois HartmanLois Hartman grew up in Philadelphia, but after moving to a slightly more rural setting, she enjoyed life amid the greenery. There was just one problem.

“In Philadelphia, we roller-skated on the streets because they were smooth,’’ she recalled. “When we got to Glenside, I couldn’t roller skate because the streets were macadam.”

Today, Lois is a Homeland resident who first arrived in May 2021. She loves her personal care suite and the freedom to do what she wants every day.

Lois grew up in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia until the family moved to the historic village of Glenside in Cheltenham Township. Her father was a Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania worker. Her mother stayed home with Lois and her brother and sister until the family moved to Glenside when she became a teacher.

In high school, Lois had an active social life, and while she was attending Pierce Business School in Philadelphia, she started dating a friend, Donald, from her church group.

“We were very active in church,” she says. “We did everything. We went roller skating. There were a million things that we did. We were just a group that got along.”

Lois and Donald got married in 1958, and she used her business skills to handle the paperwork for her husband’s business, a Hess gasoline station on Route 1 in Langhorne.

“It was very, very busy,” she says.

Lois and Donald had two children, a son and a daughter, but sadly, he was diagnosed with cancer after they had been married almost 20 years. It was in April, and by August, he had died. She took over the business, but it was in the days when self-service was coming to Pennsylvania gas stations. The company wanted to rebuild the old station, so she decided to give it up and sold it back.

“It was worthwhile work, but I wanted to work in a bank,” she says. She joined Girard Bank part-time, performing customer service in Warminster.

Lois HartmanShe enjoyed the work, helping people open accounts and taking loan applications. She got to know the ins and outs of the bank and was in line for a branch manager position, but love intervened again. She met her second husband, Jim, “after six years of being single.”

Jim worked hard to earn his psychology license and joined the Carbondale-Lehigh Intermediate Unit, which provides educational services for children with disabilities and learning barriers. He worked there until he retired.

Jim and Lois were very close through more than 30 years of marriage until he passed away around 2013.

“I like it very much here,” she says. “I like everything about it.” She plays bingo and goes on outings, such as a recent excursion to Gilligan’s restaurant. Her personal care suite is bright and cheery.

“I’ve been very happy here,” she says. “I can do what I want without anything bothering me. I like it very much. I like the way everything goes.”

Homeland resident Pat Wise: A life fully lived

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Caring for family is important to Pat Wise, whether it was helping to look after her siblings, her own daughter and granddaughter, or children at the residential Milton Hershey School.

Pat and her first husband, Robert Samuel Townsley, moved from where they grew up in Huntingdon County to Hershey in 1958 and spent more than a decade as house parents at the school. When Robert’s father died, they returned home, buying the family farm.

“We had a nice time,” said Pat of life with Robert, who died in 1972. “It was a nice few years.”

Recently Pat and her daughter, Lisa Myers, talked about a life rich and well-lived. Pat now lives in Homeland’s Ellenberger Unit, enjoying the activities and the attentive care. Her daughter, Lisa Myers, appreciates the small size of the dementia-care wing and the responsiveness of the staff.

Pat was born in Kistler and raised in Mt. Union. Her father worked in one of the brickyards where many of the area’s men worked. She had an older sister and brother and a younger sister named Sandra, who died from sleeping sickness at age 3. The loss weighed on Pat, who was only a couple of years older and had always wanted a sister.

She had fun with her good friends, but there were always chores, especially after her father died from silicosis – caused by breathing in particulates in the brickyard – when Pat was about 12 years old.

In 1948, Pat married Robert, who she knew from school. He had served in World War II in a highly secure area, interpreting messages. During their time at the Milton Hershey School, they lived in three houses where students – all boys in those days – also resided.

Robert would take the “barn boys” to care for the school’s dairy cattle. Pat would oversee the “house boys,” ensuring they did the cleaning, cooking, and laundry every day. They had fun, too, playing baseball, making jack-o-lanterns at Halloween, visiting Hersheypark, and skating in the Hersheypark Arena.

One of those boys was Anthony Colistra, who grew up to be superintendent of Cumberland Valley School District and, from 2009 to 2013, president of Milton Hershey School.

When they moved back to Huntingdon County, they purchased the family farm and an adjoining property. Together with their son and daughter, Pat and Robert had about 250 acres. In addition to working the farm, Robert took a job at a sneaker factory. Pat worked at a sewing factory, making men’s suits.

Pat enjoyed sewing and knitting – skills she learned from her mother, a meticulous seamstress.

“I had all handmade clothes,” Pat said. “She was really good. When I was little, I thought it was terrible, but really, I was lucky.”

In 1972, Robert died from multiple myeloma. A year later, a friend introduced Pat to a widower named Jay Robert Wise, who everyone called Bob. They married in 1974 and were together for 43 years until he died in 2017.

When Lisa was growing up, her mother taught her how to cook – “cakes from scratch, and the icing,” Lisa recalls. “She would have amazing birthday parties. She could draw really well. She always helped me with my art projects.”

After Lisa got married, she and her husband were working parents, and Pat was “a huge help,” Lisa says. “If my daughter was sick, Mom would swoop in. She would always come and help clean and cook and get groceries. I had a huge support system.”

Pat came to Homeland in February 2021. It came highly recommended, Lisa said, adding she is very pleased with the decision.

“They love her there,” Lisa says. “She’s doing really well.”

Lisa appreciates the intimacy of the Ellenberger Unit. At any time, she can get in touch with staff or Director Daniqwa Buckner – “She’s amazing,” Lisa says – and get a quick response.

“It’s a beautiful facility,’’ Lisa said. “People work really hard there. It’s a good place. I like that I can call or text [the staff] and get a response. We’ve been very fortunate.”

Homeland resident Peggy Keiser: Knitting for giving

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In the skilled hands of Peggy Keiser, yarn transforms into colorful gestures of love for a child in need. It’s the latest measure of a lifetime of generosity – one that life at Homeland Center helps her continue.

Peggy and her son, Rusty, came to Homeland in 2018 and quickly joined in their new home’s life and daily activities. Most days, you can find her in either the Gathering Room or her airy personal care suite, lovingly knitting sweater vests for 3- and 4-year-old children.

All the expertly knitted vests – more than 50 since 2019 – are donated to social service agencies, which distribute them to families in need of warm clothing.

For Peggy – who served as secretary for 10 Susquehanna Township School District superintendents over her 65-year career – knitting has been part of her life since childhood. She learned from her mother and taught her daughter, Sandra Daily. After retiring from Susquehanna School District in 2011, she joined her church knitting group, where she began making the tiny vests for children in need.

She has a talent for unique color combinations, whether highlighting a vest in teal shades with a crisp white collar or using a contrast of blue to turn a self-striping red and white yarn into an American flag.

“She combines colors from odds and ends of yarn in her closet,” said her daughter, who serves on the Homeland Board of Managers. “To me, that is amazing.”

Every vest that Peggy knits always comes together so well. Peggy knits most days of the week, but takes a break on Sunday’s.

“She’s always told me because that’s the way it was in her family,” says Sandra. “They don’t do anything on Sunday.”

Peggy is motivated by a lifetime of service which continues uninterrupted at Homeland.

“She likes the fact that she’s giving to somebody else,” said Sandra, who finds social service agencies to distribute the vests. “Mother has always been that way.”

“Oh, yes!” Peggy chimed in. “I do that. People, people, people.”

Here’s one example: In November 2021, a pack of handmade Thanksgiving cards arrived for Peggy showing turkeys drawn by outlining small hands made by Susquehanna schoolchildren. Peggy wanted to thank the sender, so Sandra tracked down the senders’ teacher, and Peggy emailed to thank her for “adding something special to a 94-year-old senior citizen’s day.”

The teacher responded with a heartfelt note and a story about Peggy’s unforgettable kindness. It was 1990, and the teacher had just moved to the area to work in the school district. The superintendent spent a day helping the teacher find an apartment during the holiday break. Peggy sold the teacher her grandmother’s living room furniture, and the superintendent allowed a district custodian to deliver the pieces. On the second day of the New Year, Peggy invited the teacher to enjoy the traditional central Pennsylvania meal of pork and sauerkraut.

“Your mom was so embarrassed to be serving leftovers,” the teacher wrote. “Little did she know that kindness would help mold me into the teacher that I am today.”

In addition to knitting, Peggy fills her days at Homeland with exercise class and bingo and enjoys doing Sudoku and word puzzles in the newspaper.

“The staff is wonderful here,” Sandra said. “Many of them have been here for a long time. That longevity says a lot about the care they receive.”

Homeland resident Gladys Mumper enjoys days full of activities

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The secret to living 100 years is lots of rest, says Gladys Mumper. The Homeland resident doesn’t like getting up early in the morning, but with Homeland’s array of activities, she packs a lot of living into the hours left in every day.

“Homeland is a very wonderful place to live,” Gladys says. “They treat you well. They find things for you to do all the time. My son says I should take advantage of it. He says, ‘Do whatever they offer,’ and I do.”

Gladys, a long-time New Cumberland resident, enjoys her active life at Homeland. Her bright, comfortable personal care suite is decorated with family photos, furniture from her home, and favorite pictures.

Her father was a building contractor who built their home. The family didn’t travel much, except for the occasional visit to an uncle in New Hampshire.

The youngest of six children, Gladys attended Central Penn Business College and then landed a job with the state.

“Civil service was insurance that you had your job,” she says. “You didn’t lose your job due to politics.”

She got married in 1951 to James Mumper. She had known him in high school, but they weren’t dating then.

“My uncle was a minister in Shippensburg, and he married us,” she says.

Gladys and James, a real estate broker, had a daughter and a son. The family stayed in New Cumberland, where both children did well in school. Her daughter attended Duke University and became a pediatrician. Her son attended Georgia Tech and followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, founding the well-known firm of J.W. Mumper Construction.

As her children grew up, Gladys was a den mother for her son’s Boy Scout troop. Their activities included hiking the Pennsylvania and Maine segments of the Appalachian Trail.

Glady’s husband died in 2001. She came to Homeland in 2019 and immediately made it her home. Nearly everything on the activities calendar constitutes her daily schedule.

She enjoys trivia, “This Day in History” gatherings, restaurants, and excursions to local attractions. For the holidays, she joined a trip to see the extravagant Hershey Sweet Lights display and an exhibit of nativity scenes at a local church.

Activities Coordinator Diomaris Pumarol says that Gladys isn’t interested in cooking anymore but enjoys socializing with other residents who attend the Baking and Chatting group.

“You can’t believe the activities they have here,” adds Gladys. “They are marvelous. They go way out of their way to keep us busy and entertained.”

Gladys’ son, Jim Mumper, says the consistency and dedication of staff make Homeland special.

“The staff is just wonderful,” he says. “They’re very, very nice. Homeland does a great job selecting people and training them and keeping them happy.”

Gladys celebrated her 100th birthday in October 2021, but there’s a catch.

“I cannot really vouch for that because I do not have a birth certificate,” she admits. “There were three of us in our town that the doctor did not register. I just have to vouch that they’re correct, and I’m here.”

As for Homeland, she calls it her “safe haven.”

“Just wonderful. You can’t go wrong. They treat you special. We all say we couldn’t have made a better choice. It doesn’t matter what you have or don’t have, everyone is treated the same.”