Former Lutheran pastor Ray Scherer visited eight different retirement communities in four states before deciding The Woodlands was where he wanted to make his new home. He was impressed by how friendly and welcoming residents and staff were and it also brought him closer to two of his sons and their families. He has only lived at The Woodlands since September and is looking forward to his first summer here.

Ray grew up in the small town of Olney in southern Illinois. He spent his teen years driving a tractor and working the family farm.

“We did not have electricity before World War II and we farmed with horses until I was in the 5^th grade, so I’m from a different era,” Ray says.

After graduating from high school, Ray went to college at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio and then attended seminary at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago where he earned both a Master of Divinity degree and a Doctor of Divinity degree.

His career as a Lutheran pastor began in Joliet and Kirkland, Illinois before he moved to Southampton, Pennsylvania with his wife and three sons. Ray served as the pastor of a church there for over two decades and lived there for forty years. During that time, he travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and all over Europe. He and his wife hosted five German exchange students when their sons were in high school, and all three boys were exchange students in Germany. Ray still likes to travel whenever possible and he has three timeshares in New York City, Williamsburg, Virginia, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

While he misses his old friends in Pennsylvania, Ray says he has not had any problem meeting people and making new friends every day at The Woodlands.

“There are a lot of activities here and everyone is so friendly and welcoming. The highlight of the day is gathering in the dining room each evening and sitting with different people for every meal. It’s a great way to get to know new people. As a clergy person, people are very important to me, and I like to visit and get to know them. That’s how friendships are established,” Ray says.

Ray may have lived at The Woodlands only a few months, but he is already very involved in community activities and is looking forward to participating in more this summer. He serves as the team leader for Saturday night movies and is tasked with choosing the movies based on resident feedback. He sings in The Woodlands chorus as well.

Ray is also staying busy decorating his apartment and has an impressive art collection including a 17^th century painting by a Dutch Master, and three 19^th Century paintings from Austria, France, and Great Britain.

“I have a beautiful apartment that overlooks the woods, and I am filling the walls with my art collection. I am truly a connoisseur of the arts – music, art, and the theater,” Ray says.

Betsey Barnes has travelled for much of her life as the wife of a Foreign Service Officer. In the process she has published two novels and is now writing her third.  

When she’s not writing she is connecting with other residents of The Woodlands and enjoys hearing their stories.

“Stories are so interesting to me – always have been. Everybody has a story,” Betsey says. 

Betsey grew up in New Jersey and spent her teen years in the Bronx, New York. She was the oldest of three children and especially close to her brother John.  Her father was a minister, so the family moved to different parishes. Her mother was a college graduate, unusual for the times, and instilled in her daughter the importance of learning and a love of writing.

Betsey’s first wish was to be an actress and she became very involved in theater at her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, serving as president of the Dramatic Society.  

After graduation she married Harry, her brother’s roommate. As a career foreign service couple, Harry’s assignments took them around the world. From their first posting in Bombay, India, they went to Prague, Czechoslovakia, then to Oberammergau, a town in the Bavarian Alps, Germany, where they studied Russian. Their next assignment was Moscow, capital of the Soviet Union.

Following assignments took them to Kathmandu, Bucharest twice, back to New Delhi, India and finally to Santiago, Chile. Betsey’s stories are borrowed from her experiences traveling the world to these postings.

During their years in the Service, it was their luck to meet Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. They also spent time with first ladies Jackie Kennedy and Barbara Bush. Harry eventually worked in Georgia and travelled with Jimmy Carter.

Betsey and Harry retired to pastoral Peacham, Vermont, onto land with views of the distant White Mountains of New Hampshire. They came to The Woodlands in its earliest months and found an apartment with sunlight from sunrise to sunset with enough space for all their needs. After Harry died, Betsey found comfort with residents who had gone through the same grieving experiences. Now she looks forward to dinner with her Woodland friends every night in the dining room.

Betsey is the author of two novels, “Unforgiving Heights” and “Far is the Moon of My Home.”  She shares her home with two “wonderful cats, Corky and Patchy” and is busy writing her third novel.

Since moving to The Woodlands in September 2020, longtime Lebanon resident Molly Bonhag said she has met a wonderful group of friends, broadened her social circle and discovered a meaningful, new form of community.

“Living at The Woodlands has been wonderful,” said Molly. “It’s everything I was hoping it would be. What’s interesting about this place is you can be as social or as private as you choose to be, and people are very accepting. I think it’s a very good thing because it accommodates everybody’s differences and choices.”

So far, Molly has also enjoyed getting involved in the various on-campus, resident-organized activities available for anyone to try.

“We have a lot of exercise classes, we have a gym, we have Tai Chi,” said Molly. “I also play the piano for The Woodlands chorus, and another resident and I take turns playing the piano for our monthly socials. We used to have singalongs but since COVID, we’ve had hum-a-longs!”

Molly’s life has always been full of music. She started playing the piano at age five, switching to the organ in high school. In 1990, she, her husband and three children moved to Lebanon, where she worked as a music teacher. There, she also ran a preschool program called Kindermusik, gave piano lessons, and was a church organist and choir director.

While it’s been somewhat of an adjustment moving from a large house to a smaller apartment, Molly said she has everything she needs and loves having the built-in benefits of a social community.

“After my husband died, I was living in Lebanon all by myself in this big house, and as the fall turned into winter and the only people whom I’d see were the two coming to work on my house, I realized I needed to be somewhere with more of a community,” said Molly. “Now, at The Woodlands, my apartment is a two-bedroom with a den and two bathrooms, and I park in a heated garage. I don’t need anything more than that.”

“Another thing I love about being here is that the staff makes suggestions — they don’t make rules,” Molly added. “They treat us like adults. And the maintenance staff is so eager to help in any way, whether hanging a picture or helping to figure out how to use your TV! Today, Residents have to wear a mask if they go outside their apartment, but we’re all willing to do it for the sake of everybody. We really feel like a community here and that what we do impacts other people.”

From the moment they moved in, Jim and Brooke Adler were impressed by The Woodlands, from the food, to our helpful maintenance staff, and welcoming residents – many who have since become friends. While communal living “is an adjustment after over 50 years living together on our own,” said Jim, “it was an easier one than I would have imagined.” The Woodlands is “first class,” adds Brooke. Watch the video to hear more about why the Adlers love living at The Woodlands!

Watch the Video Interview