Al and Jo Horvath were high school sweethearts and married after graduating from college. They are still going strong 58 years later and are now looking forward to celebrating their next anniversary in August at The Woodlands.

“Peggy Cooper gave us a tour and was just wonderful,” Al said.

“The minute we walked on campus we knew this was the place,” Jo said.

Al was born in Schenectady, NY, but has lived in many places in the country and travelled the world with his career as an engineer with General Electric. When he was just starting out Al was involved with the Apollo space program to help put the first man on the moon and throughout his career he worked on radar, sonar and satellite systems for the military and several commercial satellite projects.

Jo is from New Hartford, New York and earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New York before obtaining a master’s degree in healthcare administration. Most of her career was dedicated to working with non-profits, primarily hospice and a nursing home in Syracuse, NY that took in indigent people.

Al and Jo have two sons and four grandchildren that they visit a lot. Before moving to The Woodlands 10 months ago, they enjoyed spending time at their home near Oneida Lake boating and fishing for bass and wall-eyed pike with their sons and grandchildren. Now they stay busy with community activities. Jo uses the gym several days a week and plays in a Mahjong group.

“Mahjong is complicated but good for the brain,” Jo says.

Al’s hobby for 30 years was woodworking, making gifts for friends and family and now he enjoys the community woodworking shop. Both he and Jo are on the Wii Bowling team, which he describes as, “a lot of laughs.”

Al and Jo says what they like most about living at The Woodlands is everyone is welcoming and friendly. They also like that the Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital is nearby on the campus and the great food served in the dining room where they enjoy socializing with the many new friends they have made since moving in.

“We knew right away we made the right decision coming here,” Jo said.

Bill and Lois first met as students at Tufts University and fell in love, but their lives would take them on very different paths. Their alma mater brought them together again over four decades later and now they are enjoying an active retirement at The Woodlands.

Bill was a chemistry major at Tufts University but was unsure of his career path. With the draft looming, he decided to leave college and enlist in the Army to have some say in the line of duty he was to perform.  He served with an army intelligence unit known as the Army Security Agency and after basic training, he was sent to a military language school and served in West Germany as a German linguist. After serving his three years of active duty, Bill returned to Tufts to major in German language and literature with a minor in European History. That is when he met Lois.

Lois and Bill dated in college but took separate life paths, married other people, and had families.

 Lois got an MA from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and worked for the Kennedy Administration finding volunteers for the Peace Corps. She later worked for the United States Information Agency and met her first husband, Matt Lorimer, in a State Department class. She was assigned to Berlin, Germany and he to Kampala, Uganda, where they married a year later. They had two daughters and a life of travel with assignments in Germany, Zambia, Finland, and Copenhagen, Denmark where Lois was a photo researcher for Time/Life Books. They also worked in Jamaica, Boston, and Washington, D.C. before retiring to Woodstock, Vermont.

After Matt passed away Lois decided to simplify life by saying “yes” to any suggestion, and as a result, she ended up working in both the clinic and the gift store of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, helping a childhood friend drive a moving van across Canada, and writing short stories, a few of which have been published.  She also said “yes” when Bill called to ask her out to lunch, after not having heard a word from him in 43 years.

Bill’s professional career was in the field of U.S. intelligence, principally with the National Security Agency, rising to the level of a senior executive. He and his first wife Barbara had four children. The family lived in Munich, West Germany for four years then returned to the U.S.  and settled in Laurel, Maryland where after a long illness, Barbara succumbed to a brain tumor.

Following retirement, Bill was recruited to serve on the professional staff of a congressional commission focusing on the role of US intelligence after the end of the cold war. He eventually started his own consulting firm, Strategies for Intelligence, working with AT&T, Raytheon, and the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

When Bill saw Lois’s phone number in a Tufts University alumni catalog. He decided to call her and the rest, as they say, is history.

When it came time to downsize their home of 17 years in Woodstock, VT, the search brought them to The Woodlands.

“The Woodlands attracted us because of its reputation and moderate size. Most of the other communities we visited were much larger and felt more institutional than comfortable. The community is very professionally run too, so we knew this is where we wanted to be. We have a beautiful apartment with wonderful views of the mountains and sunsets every evening,” Bill said.

Lois and Bill enjoy an active retirement with Lois attending exercise classes several times a week while Bill enjoys the treadmill and weights in the fitness room. He also anticipates working in the community woodshop. The couple has always enjoyed the outdoors and often hike the many wooded trails near The Woodlands.

“There are more activities here than anyone has time for and we are always discovering new ones. The Woodlands offers wonderful independent adult living where we have met so many friendly, interesting people that we enjoy spending time with,” Bill said.

When they are not engaged in community activities both Lois and Bill are involved with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Lebanon. Lois has taken several courses there and Bill lends his years of experience and expertise as a teacher at Osher with classes like, “Understanding the Middle East, “ “The Road to Iraq” and “The History of US intelligence from George Washington to the Present Day.”

Bill and Lois are able to enjoy a carefree retirement without household maintenance worries, and access to amenities like the fitness center and woodshop while spending time with other retired adults also pursuing their passions in a safe and supported community. The Woodlands team is thrilled to be a part of Bill and Lois’s happily-ever-after love story.

Fran has lived a very colorful life having entered a convent at the age of 17, served in the United States Air Force, and enjoyed a successful career as an editor for publications in Alaska where she lived for 55 years.

While a nun, Fran taught in parochial elementary schools in Ohio and Minnesota until she left the convent when she was 25. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, she enlisted in the Air Force where she was sent to Washington State University to earn a degree in journalism.

Fran took her journalism degree to the University of Alaska after being discharged from service.  There she worked as an editor for the “Alaska Sea Grant,” a publication funded by the federal government to encourage research in various aspects of the sea for the commercial fishing industry. She used her teaching experience as the editor of “Tide Lines” a publication for junior high schools in the state.

Fran also worked in marketing before becoming the editor of the “Alaska Geological and Geophysical Survey” magazine until she retired.

It was in academia at the University of Alaska where Fran met her husband Neal and they raised a blended family of five children. For many years, she and Neal traveled to the area near The Woodlands to visit a daughter and grandchildren in nearby Vermont and their daughter at Dartmouth College. They became familiar with what the community and the area had to offer.

“Our must-haves for a retirement community were that it be pet-friendly for our dog Molly and have a pool and hot tub. In Alaska, I had to drive ten miles in each direction to use a pool. At The Woodlands I just walk down the hall!” Fran says.

Fran also likes the fact that most of the activities at The Woodlands are resident-driven.  She is joining the library committee to get more involved. She takes Molly for several walks a day on the beautifully maintained campus and nearby nature trails, and she enjoys playing board games and singing with the community choir. To relax she swims and soaks in the hot tub a few times a week and spends time with the close friends she has made in the community.

“The Woodlands has such a family-like culture and everyone here is so friendly and caring. It’s a wonderful place to retire,” Fran says.

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.”