March 2012Volume 19 Number 2

Residents, Associates, Families & Friends www.asburymethodistvillage.org

A NEWSPAPER FOR ASBURY METHODIST VILLAGE

By Al Tholen, Park View

Spring is in the air, the flowers will start to bloom

The blossoms on the trees will fill the air with sweet perfumeSpring is in the air, I know

it’s very nearIt warms me to the heart, and

it fills me with good cheer—Adapted from

Hallmark’s Thumbelina

Y es, even as March comes blustering in, thoughts of spring do raise the spirit.

As we look around the Asbury Cam-

pus, preparations for Spring have been evident as our grounds per-sonnel have cleared away much of the winter detritus, trimmed all of the trees, and planted bulbs.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a special project in prepa-ration for spring. A trio of residents worked with a group of our grounds corps to establish a new garden spot, a short walk on the south side of Wilson Health Care Center. This semi-circular plot will provide a pleasant get-away with a lovely view

Photo: Al Tholen

Anita Taylor and Heddy Taima planting bulbs.

Photo: Al Tholen

Heddy Taima, Peggy Unsworth, and Anita Taylor are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th from the left. John Burress is on the right

Welcome to Brickman Landscaping Group

By Marolyn Hatch, Villas

By now I’m sure that you have seen on cam-

pus the subtle, tan and brown Brickman trucks. As David Den-ton announced to us recently, Brickman is our new landscape ser-vice. A family-owned business started in 1939, Brickman is proud of its history and its focus on both the customers’ needs and the relationship it has with its employees. The latter was partic-ularly important to Asbury, which wanted to be sure that AMV team members who wanted to work for Brickman had that opportunity. All ten of our team were offered super-

visory positions with Brickman. I don’t mean office jobs; their jobs might entail supervising a team of 3 or 4 in areas in which our men had very good skills. And Brickman believes, as does Asbury, in internal

Photo: Marolyn Hatch

Brickman did a tree-mendous job removing a tree struck by lightning.

Continued on page 6

Spring is in the Air

Continued on page 2

Calling All Artists!I f you are a painter,

woodworker, photog-rapher, potter, seam-

stress or needleworker, then this notice is for YOU! Asbury’s Fine Arts Committee wants you to be preparing for the annual Spring Art Show, which will run from April 27- May 30. Dead-

line for reserving a space is April 12. There will be more details in your cam-pus mailbox but it is NOT TOO EARLY to

Continued on page 2

Juanita Sulmonetti, OilA Rainy Day in the City

Lucy Smith, Needlepoint

2 March 2012 Village life

VILLAGELIFE

Asbury Methodist Village

201 Russell Avenue

Gaithersburg, MD 20877

laber@asbury.org

General information: 301-330-3000

Village Life brought to you in part by

Resident Editors

Rod Mills, Mund, Reporter

and Copy Editor

Marilyn Gaut, Trott

Norma Barr, Diamond

Bob Bernero, Wallace

Gladys Sillcox, Edwards-Fisher

Al Tholen, Park View

Marilyn Carter, Courtyard Homes

Help Wanted, Kindley

Resident Staff

Courtyard Homes: Peter Cascio

and Maria E. Roberts

Diamond: Alma Stewart

Mac McCullough, Edith Isacke,

Jan Garman and Hal Garman

Edwards-Fisher: Joan Dunlop,

Rosemary Pasek, Luella LeVee and

masses of March hugs to Betty Goen!

Mund: Gil Snyder, Jack Brinley

and Anne Porter

Park View: Duane McKenna,

Anita Taylor, John Eberhard

and Tom McIlrath.

Trott: Jeanne North, Hal Gaut,

Joan Brubaker, Becky Ratliff,

Howard Morris and Dr. Bob Hartman

Villas: Reg Westlake, Carol Dennis,

Dan Muller, Jean Hubbell

and Marolyn Hatch

Wallace: Keith Steele and

Mary Waldron.

Design/Layout:

Mina Rempe @ Electronic Ink

Printing:

Chesapeake Publishing Corp..

Village Life is published by Asbury Methodist Village

Communications Department

“The mission of Village Life is to provide timely, interesting and entertaining news about the lives, concerns and activities of the peo-ple who reside, work and volunteer at Asbury Methodist Village.”

Time for Spring Cleaning!

Bargain Mart needs your lightly used household items

and “treasures.”Call Ned Hopper(6648)

or drop things off mornings at Mund’s lower level

Sale Proceeds Go to the Asbury Guild.

Benefit concert, Friday, March 9, 2012

Sponsored by The Asbury Foundation, a two-piano, 8-hand concert will be performed on Friday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Hefner Audi-

torium. This presentation will be for the benefit of the Benevolent Care Endowment Fund. As with previous years the pianists will be Ann Hoopes, Lydia Page, Norman and Catherine Heim. Music to be performed is by Mendelssohn, Mozart, J.S. Bach, Persichetti, Gershwin and Satie.

The minimum donation is $10 at the door. Or, Patron category is $100, Manager $200, Director $300. (Deadline for sponsors is March 7 to be listed in the program.)

Checks are payable to the Asbury Benevolent Care Endowment Fund. Send checks to Dr. Norman Heim, Mund 712. This event is sponsored by the Pastoral Care and Counseling Dept. and the Spiritual Life PAC. Join us!

Pictured here at the Potomac Chapter, American Guild of Organists (AGO) 12th Night Celebration in January 2012, are the present and several past-deans of the chapter. Included are two past-deans, Marjorie Jovanovic-Johnson (E-F) and Carol Dennis (Villas) (right and left of the AGO banner), residents of AMV who remain active in their musical lives. Now that’s unique!

toward the Asbury ponds. Peggy Unsworth spear-headedthis project for the residents, ably assisted by Heddy Taima and Anita Tay-lor, all of Park View.

The Asbury grounds crew was led by John Burress. John and his crew prepared the soil and dug holes for planting of tulip and daffodil bulbs by the

residents while I stood around taking pictures. We had worked with John many times in the past few years. In fact, John has worked at Asbury for over 30 years; he remem-bers taking part in planting the beautiful cherry trees that embellish much of the campus.

The part I enjoyed the most was observing my friends on hands and knees planting the bulbs.

SPRINGContinued from page 1 Laughter in

the LibraryBy Jean Hubbell, Villas

The Edwards-Fisher Library rang with laughter for over an hour when the Village Life Editors met for their regu-

lar monthly meeting to plan the contents of the next issue of the campus

newspaper. What is there about that to provoke

laughter? Maybe we were all influenced by Louise Stewart’s Keese School pre-sentation on “The

Healing Power of Laughter” but whatever

the cause, it convinced a new Courtyard Home resident who was

attending to get acquainted and perhaps join the ranks of editors to proclaim that “we had the most fun.” We consider that a great com-pliment. New writers are welcome — come join the fun. Laughter is good for you.

be thinking about what you wish to submit. Perhaps you have a work that needs some finishing touches or needs to be framed. Do not let it stay hidden or almost finished. Now is the time to get it out, dust it off and give it that little bit of love it needs to be finished

so that the whole Asbury community can enjoy it.

IMPORTANT REMIND-ERS: all drawings, paint-ings and photographs must be framed with wire attached and ready to hang. Also they must not exceed 30 inches in either length or width.

If you have questions, call Mia Schulman (5546) or Dorothy Harris (6568).

ARTISTSContinued from page 1

Village life March 2012 3

Asbury Believe it or Not! Can YOU Solve the Mystery?

An e-mail came to the Editor’s desk from Stephanie Sabine, Executive Assistant to Associate Executive Director Henry Moehring. The e-mail was as follows:

Two very old police badges were found in the scrap metal bin of Mund. With Henry’s encouragement, I investigated and found they were from the Paducah Police Department in Kentucky. I mailed them to the Chief of Police there. He responded with a letter, and apparently they would love to have more informa-tion on the history. Letters are attached.

Perhaps this may be an interesting “mystery/human interest” item for Village Life.

Attached were the following two letters. Read them and perhaps YOU can help solve this mystery! To whom do these badges belong?

The Greening of Asbury – UpdateThe Green Team has been

formed and is working. Its members are: Lenny

Hines, Maintenance; Linda Aber, Communications; Austin Bowen, Dining; Lance Connolly, Housekeep-ing; Marcia Dobson, Maintenance; David Denton, Executive Director; Cindy Brown, Campus Education; David Lingrell and Anita Taylor, Park View; Bobbie Kudzma, Trott and Peter Cascio, Courtyard Homes.

The Green Team has planned a year of Green initiatives as follows:

JANUARY 23 – 27 was the very successful E Recycling event.

Several pallets of obsolete elec-tronics were collected for recycling.

FEBRUARY 29 (Wednesday) The Associate Director of ‘Gray is Green’ Kathleen Shomaker speaks at our “Gray is Green” event at Parker Hall at 1:30. She travels the country promoting leadership by the older generation to show the way toward building sustainable green environ-ments for the future. This is a signifi-cant stimulus to our Greening effort.

MARCH 12 (Monday) at 3:00 in Parker Hall the Wildlife Habitat Proj-ect re-certification celebration will be held. Plans to meet the require-ments of the Wildlife Habitat Coun-cil for the next three years will be continued.

MARCH 23 (Friday) at 3:00 will be the spring meeting of the AMV

Gardeners in the Diamond Arts & Crafts Room. As of 2/9 there were two plots available. Contact Dick Evans in Diamond rjevans1234@comcast.net.

MARCH 26 – 30 is Shred It Week. Lance Connolly is working on a list of shredder locations besides Ros-borough mail room. You might want to keep your old tax returns but the canceled checks and old receipts can hit the recycling shredder after three years; self-employed income paper should be held for six.

APRIL 19th (Thursday) is the big Spring event. It is GREENDAY from 10:00 – 12:00 at Rosborough. As in previous years, there will be advice from Garden Club members, cut-tings and seedlings, and great cama-raderie as we swap tales and plans for another year of Greening Asbury. Don’t miss it!

MAY 11th (Friday) kicks off the Wildlife Spring Inventory; the crea-ture count of Asbury fauna.

MAY 17th(Thursday) is ADOPT-A-POT DAY. From a small 4” pot to a half barrel you can grow green things that host and feed our native butterflies, bees and bugs necessary to the survival and health of our native plants and animals. Locate these pots on your balcony, your local patio, in your garden and in your courtyard.

JUNE is a month-long Open

House visit to the residents’ gardens. After months of chill and weeks of gardeners’ planting, weeding and cultivating, there will be plenty of color in our gardens and a sum-mer to look forward to sharing the bounty.

JULY explores HEALTHY EAT-ING and sponsorship of the Chef’s Challenge. While broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage are all healthy foods, our talented chefs stir up other tasty, healthy meals for us every day. More information will follow.

AUGUST is recycle month: SWAP-TIL-U-DROP electronics, clothing, all the stuff from those big Court-yard garages where the cars can’t fit yet. The Clothes Closet will lighten your wardrobe or add to your col-lection. And the Bargain Mart is always interested in your unwant-ed treasures, household items and small pieces of furniture that are in good condition.

SEPTEMBER – An exception to the current Fall and Injury Preven-tion initiative, we encourage you to “Fall into good green habits.” No, not the clothing type, but the ones that you have learned during the past year from our enthusiastic Green Team.

OCTOBER: Wildlife Habitat Month – Review accomplishments of AMV’s Wildlife Habitat team

and hear their plans for 2013 and beyond to meet the requirements of the national Wildlife Habitat Coun-cil in pursuit of continued recogni-tion and compliance with their very Green program.

NOVEMBER: Thanksgiving for Greenability - There is so much to give thanks for here at Asbury, but sometimes what is less evident also needs some recognition, The Green-ability Team has sometimes strug-gled to get members, but all of us understand the need to “green up” to save our small piece of the plan-et. It is more than bird houses and tree trails; it’s using green cleaning materials, mulching, saving electric-ity, walking, ridding the campus of invasive plants and sparing the life of essential little inoffensive bugs.

DECEMBER: Re-gifting, creative gift wrapping. This is the month to be creatively “green” and recycle/re-gift. We all have received gifts that we politely acknowledged and quickly tucked into the back of a closet. But now you have a season to move that “stuff” along! And if you have run low, check out the Bar-gain Mart for some real bargains just looking for a second home. Next year, of course, you may recognize some of your Christmas presents as recurring “old friends” you thought you’d never see again. (Your friends know what you like.)

4 March 2012 Village life

By Sarah Corbett, Diamond

Lively debates remind us that 2012 is an election year. In Maryland the primary election

is on April 3. To be eligible to vote you must be registered by March 13. To obtain a voter registration appli-cation, call the Montgomery County Board of Elections at 240-777-8683 or download a form from its website at www.777vote.org. The Motor Vehicle Administration, county libraries, some U.S. post offices and other county offices have applications available.

To qualify to vote you must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of Montgomery County, at least 16 years of age (we all meet that requirement!), and not be under a court-ordered ineligibility

due to mental disability or convicted of a felony unless a court-ordered sentence has been completed.

You may have moved to Asbury after years of living in Montgomery County. But your office voting district depends on your present residential address, not a previous address or P.O. Box. It’s your responsibility to noti-fy the Board of Elections (240-777-8500) if you change your address, change your name, or wish to change your party affiliation. In Maryland you must be a registered member of the Republican or Democratic Party in order to vote in that party’s primary

races.Luckily for Asbury residents, our

polling place is in the Hefner Audi-torium. If it’s not convenient for you to vote there on April 3, because of a visual handicap or any other reason, you may request an absentee ballot from the Board of Elections by calling 240-777-8500, or from www.777vote.org.

You probably have heard that elec-tion districts have been changed by the Maryland legislature. Asbury resi-dents now live in the Sixth Congres-sional District instead of the Eighth. All registered voters will receive voter

information cards with their name, party affiliation, current address and Election district before the primary.

Members of the non-partisan League of Women Voters have been placing an orange leaflet, “Your Voice, Your Vote,” in campus mail slots of new residents. This detailed infor-mation on voting is also available in public areas on campus. It includes information on dates and sites for early voting for the primary and gen-eral elections.

Would you like to volunteer your time and energy to work as an elec-tion judge? Contact the Board of Elec-tions, 240-777-8500, and give yourself a pat on the back for being a good citizen!

“Beloved Community” UpdateBy Janet Garman, Diamond

Since the last report about the Beloved Com-munity initiative here at

Asbury, appeared in the pages of Village Life, there have been several significant develop-ments:

A resident Advisory com-mittee has been formed. Members include: Hal Garman (chair), Mercer Cross, Gordon and Jan Forbes, Jan Garman, Marilyn Gaut, Jay Hatch, Cathy Heim, Ellis Larsen, Joan Read, Bill Root, Anneke Sengers and Peggy Unsworth.

On Saturday, February 4, the Advisory Committee met with five young women and two young men from Gaithersburg who shared with them the pres-sures young people from our community face. Several Com-mittee members hosted them at lunch in the Hefner Dining Room and James Warner and his son, Donald, provided games for them.

The group also met with three men returning into the commu-nity after being incarcerated who told the stories of their lives and the difficulties they face as they seek employment and returning to life outside. Also at this meet-ing was Rev. Tim Warner from the Office of the County Executive. Rev. Warner runs a summer camp-ing program for children of peo-ple who are incarcerated.

Several members met with a fif-teen year old youth from the sus-pension center which is held in Ascension House. This program is run by Eileen Shea who has met with the Advisory Commit-tee at several of its meetings.

On February 16 several adviso-ry committee members met with high school youth who partici-pate in an after-school program sponsored by the City of Gaith-ersburg.

In talking with these groups and other community leaders, the importance of mentoring in the lives of young people has become very apparent. It has also become apparent that this needs to start in the elementary school years.

The Committee is hopeful that a photography project will be implemented with 25 second to fifth graders from Gaithersburg Elementary School this spring uti-lizing Asbury’s wildlife resources. This program will be in coopera-tion with Identity, a community-based organization that serves Latino youth and their families and is run by Carolyn Camacho who has also attended Advisory Committee meetings. We are hopeful that several Asbury resi-dents will participate with the children on this project.

The Committee is exploring the possibility of changing the name of the project to something that would better communicate

its purpose to the larger com-munity.

Now for a bit of history for those who may not be famil-iar with the Beloved Com-munity Initiative. It was first proposed by Hal Garman after hearing a talk by Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, about the “cradle-to-prison pipeline” that characterizes the lives of many children in the United States and in our region. Rev. Dr. Martha

Brown, AMV’s Director of Pasto-ral Care and Counseling, invited various community leaders from the City of Gaithersburg, Asbury Methodist Village, Montgomery County and Wesley Theological Seminary to explore the possibil-ity of Asbury residents becoming involved in some meaningful way to help stem this tide in the lives of young people who live just outside Asbury’s gates. These parties were all very enthusiastic about the project and agreed to help fund its endeavors. Jame-son McLaughlin, a student from Wesley Theological Seminary, was employed at the beginning of last summer and has been making contacts with Asbury residents, community agencies and Gaith-ersburg youths, particularly those who gather in the Mall and around the Transit Center adjacent to the Mall. Jameson was later joined by another Wesley student, Rebecca Cole.

Residents who wish to learn more about this project or join the Resident Advisory Commit-tee should contact Hal Garman at 6436.

“Cliff Notes” for ResidentsBy Marolyn Hatch, Villas

It’s said in the Villas that you haven’t really “arrived” until the Fire Company responds to your forgetting to turn on

the fan before you burn your toast. Across AMV you can say you’ve “arrived” when you can define the following in fewer than two minutes: PAC, CCAV, QSB and COR. The following provides a cheat sheet when next you need to know.

PAC (Partnership Advisory Committees) is a forum to share ideas with the Adminis-tration. Each PAC has resident and associ-ate co-chairs and focuses on a specific area of resident interest: Buildings and Grounds: Wally Jobusch (4543) and Lenny Hines; Communication: Marolyn Hatch (4875) and Linda Aber; Dining and Nutrition: Shirley Mallory (5481) and Mark Whalen; Future Projects: Murray Schulmann (5546) and David Denton; Foundation: Tom McIlrath (3121); Health & Wellness: Bob Hartman (6833) and Amy Ostrolenk; Marketing: Carol Watkins (5765) and Cathy Ritter, Spir-itual Life: Lee Harvey (4471) and Martha Brown; Security, Reception and Transporta-tion: Gil Snyder (5677) and Walt Albright .

CCAV (Coordinating Council Asbury Vil-lage) is a monthly forum for residents to hear what the PACs are working on. Led by John Eberhardt the CCAV and PAC struc-ture is being rethought. Stay tuned.

QSB (Quality Service Board) brings Resi-dent Council Chairs and Department Asso-ciates together to learn what AMV is up to and to bring residents’ broad service con-cerns forward.

COR (Coordination Operations Report) is referred to as the “COR report,” a redun-dancy, but it has caught on. It is the monthly publication of the QSB meeting and department updates.

The Asbury Handbook more fully describes all of these activities. AMVresi-dents.org is the link to PAC information thanks to Charlie Fullerton. And when Touchtown is up and running, the internet version should provide links to minutes from the PACs and the COR.

YoUr Voice, YoUr

Rebecca Cole and Jameson McLaughlin, Wesley Seminary interns working with “Beloved Community”

Village life March 2012 5

By Mac McCullough, 2010-11 CCAV Chair

What do Buckingham Palace, Tomb of the Unknowns, and the

Coordinating Council of Asbury Methodist Village (CCAV) have in common? They all have a special time to “change the guard.” The CCAV had it’s changing on January 24 at its regularly scheduled meet-ing in Hefner Auditorium.

It began with the Chair present-ing Certificates of Appreciation to four former Partnership Advisory Committee (PAC) Resident Co-Chairs: Norma Barr, Future Projects; Norman and Cathy Heim, Spiritual Life; and Earl Kragnes, Marketing.

Next, he presented Certificates of Appreciation to Edith Isacke and to his very surprised wife, Minette, for her patience and support during the past two years.

He then installed the Members of the CCAV Executive Commit-tee and the Resident Co-Chairs

for 2012. They are: John Eberhard, Chair; Judy Beisner*, Vice Chair; Vir-ginia Rabenhorst*, Secretary; Lydia Battle*, Assistant Secretary; Larry Machlan, Treasurer; Margaret Davis, Assistant Treasurer; Fran Blender-mann, Membership Registrar; and Betsy Monks*, Assistant Membership

Registrar; Wally Jobusch, Buildings and Grounds; Marolyn Hatch, Com-munications; Shirley Mallory, Dining; Tom McIlrath, Foundation; Murray Schulman*, Future Projects; Bob Hartman, Health and Wellness; Carol Watkins*, Marketing; Gil Snyder, Security, Reception and Transporta-tion; and Spiritual Life, Lila Harvey*. (Note: * indicates new in 2012)

Thus the “changing of the guard” took place and the 2012 CCAV Chair, John Eberhard, took charge and conducted the remainder of the meeting. The next CCAV meeting will take place on March 27 at 9:30 a.m. in the Hefner Auditorium. All residents are encouraged to attend.

Peek the PACsatBy Mac McCullough, CCAV Chair

Photo: George Huson

Election of the Courtyard Homes Residents’ Council was held at 10:00 on Friday February 3rd at the Rosborough Community Room.

Elected were Terry Herndon, Chairman; Jag Bhargava, Vice-Chair-man; Maria Roberts, Secretary and Peter Cascio, Treasurer. Pictured from left to right: Jag Bhargava, Vice-Chairman; Peter Cascio, Trea-

surer; Terry Herndon, Chairman; Maria Roberts, Secretary.

Working on Wellness— You’re Never Too Young to Start!

Casey Ann MacKenzie and Mildred Reynolds work out togeth-er in the fitness Center. Casey Ann is 18 months old and is

the daughter of Rhoda and Jim Mackenzie’s son David and his wife Bridgette. She will be two years old on August 2.

ABIG THANK YOU to over a hundred elves (includ-ing associates) who helped

make Elves Day a huge success. We especially thank those in charge of wrapping, sorting, table arrange-ments, deliveries to Wilson Health Care and Kindley Assisted Living. And thank you also to the House-keeping associates who readied the Community rooms and delivered the boxes from Santa’s workshop to Rosborough. This year was so much easier with the standard boxes from Staples. The contributions from resi-dents and churches were truly won-derful. The Overcoming Church of Gaithersburg appeared the after-noon before Elves Day with adults, teens and children and a van load of gifts which they had collected and wrapped. After “going the extra mile” by spending a couple hours integrating them into our distribu-tion system, they returned on Elves

Day to help residents and associates fill bags.

The following are a few stories that have come back to us already. A

woman came in with a plush animal, saying she had received it when she was in Wilson some time ago and it had meant so much to her that

she wanted someone else to enjoy it. Ann Giaquinto reported that the residents of Kindley received their bags at dinner. The animals are not wrapped and a resident took out her Dalmatian and never let go of it. I visited a recipient at Wilson. She had opened the long thin package thinking it was a pencil. It turned out to be a toothbrush which she also needed—and she has been using it ever since. She was saving the rest of her packages for Christ-mas Day.

And so another Elves Day is behind us. But we are already planning for next year. It looks like the date will be December 12 with the set up on the afternoon of the 11th. Put this on your new calendar as we wish you a great year knowing you have made this past Christmas a happier one for many of your neighbors.

—Hal and Marilyn Gaut, Trott

changing of the Guard

Thank you Elves!

Photo: Hal Gaut

6 March 2012 Village life

My parents encouraged me from a very young age to give part of any money I

might receive to the church. While in school in the 1940s and 50s, I gave to the March of Dimes and to what was the American Tuberculo-sis Society, now the American Lung Association; I remember getting a red cross to wear indicating I had donated to the Tuberculosis Society.

As I grew older and was out on my own I continued to give to the church and a few other charities that might solicit me in public. When I got my own place and a permanent address in the 1960s, I began to get solicitations in the mail and these solicitations have grown over the years.

Over the past year I kept a data base file on my laptop; here is just some of the data that I have col-lected: I received some 773 pieces of mail from 147 different organi-zations. The number of pieces of mail per charity ranged from one to 30, with the arithmetic mean being about 5.4, the median being about

3, and the mode being surprisingly one with some 54 charities send-ing out only one solicitation for the year.

Many of these solicitations con-tained a “token gift” that I guess is to perhaps play on your conscience and make you feel somewhat guilty if you accept the gift and do not donate. One very popular gift is address labels, but I ask how many does one need over a year; I didn’t keep track over the year, but my guess is I received several thousand. In fact one of the last letters of the year stated it contained 55% more free labels (the exact number being 100 meaning that over the year that organization sent over 600). One of the other gifts is greeting cards of all types but especially of Christ-

mas cards as Christmas approaches. Then too there’s the charity that will send a penny, nickel, dime or even an occasional dollar bill. Oh yes, the calendars can’t be forgot-ten. What is one to do with these so called gifts? I found the following to

appease my conscience and provide some help to Asbury: (1) Keep and use the cards from the charities that I donate to with the others, along with most calendars, going to the Volunteer Services Office at Wilson Health Care Center; (2) Donate mon-ies to the Bargain Mart; (3) Keep and use only some of the address labels from charities that I donate to while recycling the remainder along with all the paper included in the letters of solicitation.

Of course besides the charitable solicitations I receive several mail-ings during the year that offer me credit cards, magazine subscriptions and Medicare supplementary insur-ance. Although I receive all these via the U. S. mail, I am fairly certain they don’t pay their way any more than the first-class mail that you and I send.

And it continues: in January this year I received 34 mailings from charities, a great decrease from the 81 that I received in January of 2011 – maybe things are looking up.

It’s A Guy Thing

Grins and Grimaces

By Dan Muller, Villas

I’m not too sure this is a real guy thing, but it is an observation by a guy about some very fine ladies.

Ever since I have known Joan, now more than sixty years, she would tell me stories about her Aunt Mildred. One I remember clearly is that Aunt Mildred was a fastidious housewife. Based on what Joan told me, she must have had the cleanest house in the neighborhood. Even Joan’s mother, Mil-dred’s sister, would talk about how Aunt Mildred kept her house spotless. It was family lore. Periodically, she would even roll up her rugs and sweep the floor under where they had been. This was some time before vacuum cleaners were available to many housewives.

Well, as we all know about things like this, Aunt Mildred grew older and finally she was not physically able to keep her home as clean as she liked. She was desperate about this problem and eventually heard about a lady in her neighborhood who would clean for some modest fee.

Mildred thought this was a good idea and told Joan’s mother on the day before the cleaning lady was due to arrive how tired she was because she had spent the entire day cleaning her house. When Joan’s mother asked why she did all that cleaning, she said that she didn’t want a total stranger coming into her home and seeing that it was not spotless.

Now let’s zoom ahead for some years to the present and our home. Asbury, as routine maintenance of our Villa, replaced the furnace and air conditioning unit. This involved two men working in our home for about a day and a half removing old equipment and bringing in new. They were in and out of our house many times. These men were very careful about being neat, and cleaning up after themselves, but they were guys and missed a few spots here and there.

Our Asbury cleaning lady was due later in the week, but Joan told me to vacuum the floors and to be sure that there was no evidence of the few spots here and there left by the workers. I thought immediately about Aunt Mildred.

It must be in the genes.

Charity Solicitations: Too Much Mail

promotions that recognize knowl-edge and skill, and provides oppor-tunities to get additional training and move up. Brickman has over 160 bases in 29 states so our friends have good career options. Six of our AMV team chose to accept Brickman’s offer. And all of our for-mer team will have their benefits continued throughout the transition and get very good Brickman ben-efits in the future.

Mark Gonzales is the campus lead supervisor, but because of Brick-man’s unique structure he does not have an AMV office. He is, however, available by cell phone to respond to needs or report progress. A small team of men circulate on the cam-pus, noting things to be done and picking up nature’s litter. When Mark develops a project, such as last month’s bush trimming, Brickman brings from other nearby sites a surge of staff to complete the job in much less time than a single smaller crew could do. And AMV no longer is held hostage by the grass growing season which limits what else can be done. Surge staffing is the way to go. By moving employees locally to where the needs are, Brickman fully utilizes its teams and provides efficient and timely service.

And they bring much to our cam-pus: Regional horticulturists, land-

scape architects, seasonal color designers, turf and irrigation special-ists are on staff and available when needed. If you live in the Villas you have already witnessed Brickman’s superb services. The very tall oak that was struck by lightning a year ago and carried the wide scar from top to bottom was quietly and quick-ly taken down in February. Advance notice of the partial road closure, help in moving trash containers that were out for pickup, and a most professional “surgical” team were quite impressive. Such efforts make use of regional employee resources and result in a sustainable, beautiful campus.

Brickman will adhere to Asbury’s long-in-place policy of maintaining AMV’s grounds. If a resident would like something special done in their private garden, he or she should submit a work order through Marcia Dobson (4070) or via email at wor-korderdesk@asbury.org. The usual charges may apply.

And the Garden Club is looking forward to getting help cutting its grass and continuing to receive the loads of supplements that encour-age our summer harvests.

This new partnership looks like it is good for us all: staff who want-ed them retained jobs and benefits and got better opportunities; Asbury gets the service it needs when it needs it; and we continue to find joy in our beautiful grounds.

BRICKMANContinued from page 1

Village life March 2012 7

Old Men Make Better LoversBy Jack Brinley, Mund

Valentine’s Day came and went and much energy was focused on bringing to full

bloom the nascent budding passion of young love. To this end Cupid looses his most amorous shafts, poets parse their rhymes, orators declaim and musicians create cre-scendos of sound. In response, swains preen and maidens swoon. Old men, however, eschew this hor-monal bacchanalia. They simply sit and smile. They know that old men make better lovers.

How, you may ask, can old men, diminished by the accumulated enfeeblements of advancing years, gain preferment before virile youth in the affections of women? The explanation is quite simple. Men, old and young, recognize women and wine as co-equal creations of

a beneficent God and are eager to experience the intoxicating essenc-es that can be extracted, with prop-er technique, from the fruit of the rib and fruit of the vine. Although the techniques of extraction for both women and wine are remark-ably similar, the process does vary with the age of the man.

Take wine as an example. The young man is content with Beau-jolais, intended to be drunk young since it may not age well. The young man, in his haste to experience the effects of wine drinking, ignores the label, hastily uncorks the bottle, heeds neither aroma nor color and simply drinks the wine. He is satis-fied to experience the giddiness of young wine as if it were young love. Alas, he confuses consumption with consummation.

The old man makes no such error.

For him the real pleasure accrues in the leisurely pace to a consum-mation that integrally involves the wine. For his wine, he selects a familiar vintage he knows to have been enriched by age and holds the bottle tenderly as if in an embrace. He contemplates the label and in a nostalgic mood reflects upon it and other wines of that era that he may have known and enjoyed. There is no tasting note. None is needed. His own memory is more poignant than any prose. When nostalgia is satis-fied, he gently uncorks the bottle; not to drink of course, but to allow the wine to breathe, to be liberated, to develop its full potential. When at last he judges the wine to be ready, he pours a small amount into a glass. Again, not to drink but rath-er to swirl it delicately in the glass to experience the subtle hues and

complex aromas to be found only in a wine of maturity. When the senses of eye and nose have been satiated, the old man indulges in a small sip which confirms what he, as a sea-soned lover of wine and women, already knows: the real intoxicant residing in both derives from con-summation and not consumption.

So at last, the old man and his bot-tle of vintage wine are positioned side by side in an easy chair. The old man enjoying each small sip and if the wine be sentient, it will surely understand and accept the temer-ity of his gentle touch. His hand rests lightly upon the neck of the bottle at first and then, perhaps at last, slides slowly down to the base. And that’s why old men make better lovers.

By John Lillibridge,Trott

There are several unwritten rules for Asbury residents’ discussions at dinner: Noth-

ing about your medical issues; thir-ty seconds only for grandchildren exploits and never about your age, or someone else’s. Yet there are resi-dents who seem to have accumulat-ed a great deal of information about the other residents, as individuals, their families and their doings. All in good nature.

But somehow, individuals are

often curious about the ages of others, not to compare their age with them, just curious. Comments are heard: “She sure looks young to be coming to Asbury” or “He sure seems to be aging, how old is he really?”

Asbury staff has shared some resi-dent demographics so that we now have gleaned several things about the ages of the Asbury residents. No

individual information on residents was requested nor provided. These figures are as of Jan 1, 2012:

There were 1,334 residents, divid-ed into three groups, Wilson (249 - 19%), Kindley (134 - 10%) and Resi-dential Living (951 - 71%).

There were seven residents 100 years old or older, one of them 103.

There was one resident 61 years old and two who were 62.

The average age of the residents is about 83.

There were 106 residents who were born in 1924 (87 years old), the birthyear shared by the most residents.

With over a 40-year gap in res-idents’ ages, it is conceivable, although highly unlikely, that a resi-dent (about 60) could bring his par-ents (high 70s) and his grandpar-ents (high 90s) to also live at Asbury.

Yes, we are growing older but so are our neighbors, whom we enjoy.

By Luella Nash LeVee, Edwards-Fisher

The Shoppe (in the Rosbor-ough Building) is a friendly place. I recently joined a

table where the conversation cen-tered around World War II. Heinz Bondy, Courtyard Homes, told about coming onto the beach at Normandy eight hours after the invasion on D-Day.

We all added our wartime experi-ences but soon the topic switched to Asbury and how we enjoy life here. “My wife and I came here in September and have found it to be the friendliest place we’ve lived in a long time,” said Heinz. He collects smiles daily as he walks his two small dogs.

The Russell Ave. Café (in Kindley) is another place where it’s easy to make new friends. I joined a table just as Dean Lake, WHCC, looked out the window and exclaimed “It’s snowing!” For a snow-deprived group of residents, this was a signal

for smiles all around as we sat back and watched the snowflakes float lazily to the ground.

“Oh, what memories the snow kindles for me,” said Dean. “Snow was always my key to reach for my stew pot and begin chopping veg-etables for soup. Then I’d invite all the neighbors for homemade soup and bread.”

Mlllie Lang, Kindley, chimed in “I’ve lived a long time – 98 years – and 28 years in Mund. I can’t say I smile when anything in particular

happens; I smile at everything.”With the SMILES column in mind,

I went expectantly to the Keese School lecture on laughter given by Laughter Expert Louise Stewart, move-in coordinator, Marketing. And I was not disappointed.

On each chair was a hint of what lay ahead – a mini-snickers bar.

Louise believes in the healing power of laughter and reminded us that laughter fights stress and increases brain alertness. She advis-es keeping a “joy journal” to note

daily blessings.One of the fun things about the

lecture was audience participation. When she asked “What makes you laugh?” some of the spontaneous answers were: “children,” “the mail-man Paul,” “hearing Bev Johnson laugh,” “reruns of The Cosby Show and I Love Lucy,” “snow,” “chocolate,” ”clouds,” “sunrise,” “sunset,” “sing-ing with the afternoon sing-alongs at Trott,” “thinking back on special times,” “watching puppies play,” “lis-tening to an infant laugh out loud.”

Advice from Louise included: “Surround yourselves with funny people. Practice laughing; if you fake laughter, all of a sudden it will turn into the real thing. Collect funny sayings. Read funny books.”

Best of all (without any prompting from me), Louise congratulated us on our smiles: “There’s nothing like an Asbury smile,” she said. “It’s full of hope; it’s genuine.”

How old Are We?

8 March 2012 Village life

By Al Tholen, Park View

T he American Kennel Club (AKC) held its Westminster show February 13th and

14th in New York City. The AKC literature refers to over 150 different breeds of dogs. The International Cat Asso-ciation (TICA), like the AKC, holds shows all over the world. They claim 55 breeds of cats. The popularity of these shows would suggest that Americans like their dogs and cats. According to the American Kennel Club; “there are more pet dogs in the USA than there are people in Britain”. I assume that the population of cats is not quite as large. A new Associated Press-Petside.com poll asked pet-owners and those without pets how much they like dogs and cats. While 3 out of 4 adults (74%) said they like dogs a lot, only 2 out of 5 respondents (41%) said they like cats a lot.

Without taking sides in the dog versus cat debate, there are many differences between cats and dogs. For example, dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later. Some claim that cats are smarter than dogs; you can’t get eight cats to pull a sled

through the

snow. On

the other

hand, a dog’s eyes watch you every-

where you go. They are close com-

panions and like you to stroke their

backs and pet their noses. They can

be trained to pull sleds, sniff out

narcotics, etc. Since Park View opened its doors

six years ago as a “pet friendly build-ing”, twelve dogs, eight cats, and one canary joined some ninety residents

as the apartments were occupied. Owners of a few claim pure-breed status. Nevertheless, the other own-ers probably consider the breed of their dog or cat to be equivalent in many ways. We are not yet ready to form a club under either the AKC or

the NICA! On a day-to-day basis, the Park View cat population of Amber, Andy, Cubby, Cleocatra, Coco, and

Mocha are seldom seen unless one visits them in their apartments. On the other hand, our dog pets, includ-ing Molly, Chamois, Kate, Rocky, Colo-nel Mosby, Wesley, Angel and Misty, are seen often, primar-ily when their own-

ers “walk” them. The lone canary, Caruso, has been seen only when visiting its apartment. Our pets are spread throughout the building from the Lobby level to the 7th floor. The cats are

almost never heard. Dogs are seldom heard either unless they are welcoming you as you visit the apartment they live in. They are well behaved and friendly when they are out on a leash.

In Park View, we enjoy our pets; they each have unique personali-ties just as their human “masters” do. Perhaps, some day in the future, we could arrange a cat and dog show to show off our faithful friends to a wider audience.

DoGGoNe? NoPe; DoG ArriViNGBy Peter Cascio, Courtyard Homes

Now that the pet policy at Asbury has been expand-ed we will no doubt see

an increase in the canine popula-tion on campus. This means there will probably be an increase in the number of folks walking their dog(s) and, as in my case, vice versa. It necessarily follows, then, that an increase of the Asbury dog-poop-per-capita index will become a statistical factor to be dealt with by us individual dog walkers and, of course, Buildings & Grounds.

An informal survey of picked-up-poop deposit locations has yielded the following information: There are trash receptacles at the front doors of Rosborough, Kindley, Park View, Wilson, Mund, Trott, Dia-mond, Hefner, Wallace, Edwards-Fisher and one each by two doors

to Crawford.There is one behind Hefner, Park

View (with bag dispenser) and the Admin Bldg and one near the shuf-fle board and tennis courts behind Hefner.

There are two in the parking area in front of Wilson with poop bag dispensers (a bit petite for Angel, Lon and Teddy Bear, though).

Since plastic bags from the gro-cery store now cost 5 cents – and we are avoiding this charge with our own cloth bags - we may be bumping up against an excremen-tal crisis caused by a shortage of the reusable plastic bags many dog walkers have relied upon. I learned today that some cost about 9 cents for public purchase.

I always preferred the news-paper sleeve. Looking for them on the Internet, I found I can get

2000 of them for $50. That would be about a 5½ year supply which sounds reasonable for our Teddy Bear. One needs to consider the age of the dog and the rationality of how you are gambling on the various other life expectancies you are dealing with. There could be a clause in the Pet PAC (Should we start one?) where remaining sleeves are willed in perpetuity to survivors of both groups. It could be set up like a gift annuity! A pet PAC could also help regulate and assist in our on campus Asbury Dog Park!

Most dog-walking is done in the pond wildlife area where there are two large trash bins. I learned this week that the plastic one was orig-inally meant for regular trash and the galvanized one with the lid, for dog deposits. Since neither was

labeled, they both received both. Building & Grounds is aware and will provide a solution and may well add more depositories, com-mensurate with the actual increase in dog population and decrease of walker mobility.

Courtyard currently has only their individual trash bins, which is where we take it home if we pick up north of the upper pond receptacles when homeward bound. We are pretty conscien-tious about picking up. Not just because of the health hazard, but because there are enough I.E.D.s left in our green areas by the deer, foxes and geese already. I pick up everywhere because Teddy and I walk everywhere, and the deposit I might leave today will surely become tomorrow’s booby trap. OOPs!

Pets At Park View

Angel

Photos: Tom McIllrath

cocoa and Mocha

Katie

rocky

chamois

Village life March 2012 9

This Month in the Gallery

The Rosborough Cultural Arts and Wellness Center is home to

an ever-changing gallery of arts and handiwork created by our

residents. Stop by and see what’s new. With 12 display cases to look at, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Here’s this

month’s sampling of art.

Photo: Hal Gaut

Margaret Thurston, Edwards-Fisher

Watercolors

Photo: Hal Gaut

Ken Jones, DiamondOil

By Mary Mehring, Villas

Spring and fall are the most interesting and, occasion-ally, surprising seasons of

the year for those of us who feed birds on a year-round basis. We’re all familiar with robins that return each spring though some now seem to be year-round resi-dents, The unpop-ular, aggressive com-mon grackle will be arriving in mid-February , eating everything in sight, and frightening the smaller birds away from the feeders. Early May brings the male house wren singing constantly and flitting from bird house to house building nests to attract a female. A little later in spring, the gray catbird arrives and can be heard singing his quirky song in the trees and shrubs.

At our deck feeders we see vis-iting birds migrating either north

or south as the season dic-tates. For several springs we have had

a pair of beautiful rose-breasted g r o s b e a k s

feeding on our sunflower seeds. They stay three or four days and then depart. All winter white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos eat small seeds on the 4x4 plywood plat-form on our deck floor. As spring approaches they head north. Both spring and fall we have a small flock of chipping sparrows with us for a week and then they are on their way. Our Chesapeake Bay purple martins come in early April, build nests in our aluminum hous-es, care for their young and head back to Central America, Brazil and

the Amazon basin in August and September We fledged over 100 babies last summer.

This past spring while sitting in our rec. room and watching the birds feeding, I noticed a bird on the far side of the peanut feeder. I could not see it well until it came around to the near side of the feeder. Then I saw the colors and feather markings. The red head, white breast and the large, white trapezoid on the black back - a red-headed woodpecker. In the well over sixty years that I’ve been feed-ing birds I have never seen this bird at my feeders. What a thrill and what a beautiful bird. He came many times to that feeder for three or four days and then was gone and not seen again.

We look forward to this spring to see our regular visitors and, perhaps, that striking red-headed woodpecker again.

By Marilyn Gaut, Trott

It would have been a lot more exciting if the Redskins had been one of the contenders.

But any party that begins with free pizza has got to be a great party, especially when Walter Bank brings his caramel brownies!

The bantering began early on. Who was for which team? Who did we think would win? Who is the best quarterback, Brady or Man-ning? And then came the stats—did you know there never was an overtime in a Super Bowl?

We all stood for the national anthem and then settled in to watch the kickoff. Brady blew it early on, but the Patriots ended the first half with a point ahead. We usually mute the commercials, but not at a Super bowl. The ads are

sometimes better than the game and much talked about the next day.

Yes, we watched Madonna, but did not notice singer M.I.A.’s flip-

off. Doggone these dim eyes! Well, we helped make it the most-

watched broadcast ever. As for the Redskins, next year is another sea-son.

Photo: Hal Gaut

Undies Trotted out for Valentine’s Day

Trott gathered a crowd with their Valentine’s Day gather-ing. This time they were hav-

ing a spelling bee, but as a bit of Valentine fun (thought up by Phyllis Naylor) there was a line of mostly red undies

strung on a clothes line across their parlor. Bob McDonough was the winner of the spell-ing bee, having missed not a single word and Walter Bank was the runner-up, missing

just one word.

Phot

o: H

al G

aut

Bird Bits

Super Bowl = Trott Party

10 March 2012 Village life

A Guide to Aging, Falls, Drugs and Alcohol©

As we age, the need to take more and different medicines tends to increase. Our bodies respond differently to alcohol than when we are younger.n Some medicines don’t mix well with other medications, including

over-the-counter medicines and herbal remedies.n Many medications do not mix well with alcohol.n Changes in body weight, circulation, digestion and kidney function

affect how drugs are metabolized and eliminated.n Medicine may remain in the body longer and create a greater

chance of interaction.n The more different kinds of medications taken, the greater the

chance of a drug interaction.

Become knowledgeable about your medication and how it makes you feel.n Read labels carefully, follow directions.n Look for pictures or statements on your prescription bottles that

tell you not to take alcohol when using a particular medication. It is unsafe to drink alcohol when using medications for sleeping, pain, anxiety or depression.

n One alcoholic drink a day is the recommended limit for anyone over age 65.

n Talk to your physician or pharmacist, who can identify drug inter-actions; request drug changes to avoid interactions.

n Decrease the number of medications if possible, especially if tak-ing more than four medications. Lower drug dosages, especially psychotropic drugs, diuretics, cardiovascular drugs.

n Decrease the number of psychotropic medicines.n Avoid combinations of drugs, especially narcotics with psychotro-

pic drugs or more than one psychotropic.n Tell your physician about any food or medication allergies.n Keep track of side effects. Let your physician know promptly if you

should fall even though you are not injured, or about any unex-pected changes in the way you feel.

n Go through your medicine cabinet at least once a year to get rid of old or expired medicines.

n Have all your medicine reviewed by your doctor or pharmacist at least once a year.

Signals that may indicate an alcohol or medication-related problemn Memory trouble, loss of coordination and balance, change in sleep-

ing habits, being unsure of yourself, unexplained bruises.n Irritability, sadness, depression, unexplained chronic pain, changes

in eating habits, wanting to stay alone much of the time, trouble finishing sentences, trouble concentrating, lack of interest in usual activities, difficulty in staying in touch with family or friends, fail-ing to bathe or keep clean.

Do you think you may be having trouble with alcohol or medi-cations?n Talk with your doctor or pharmacist.n Ask advice from Care Management or call the AVTV alcohol help line.n Share concerns with a friend, family member or spiritual advisor.

Share the right informationn Make a list of all your medications.n Remind your doctor of previous conditions that affect your ability

to take certain medicines.n Don’t be afraid to ask questions.n If possible, get written instructions from your doctor or pharmacist.

Adapted from ©www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYouBob Hartman, MD – retired family practice and geriatric specialist.

Asbury Methodist Village, Gaithersburg, MD

Ask Dr. Bob “Let’s March it out!”

By Jeanne North, Trott

Chairs are all set up and Fit-ness Professional Alton Smith is all smiles as he gets

the Strength and Mobility Training Class moving in the back hallway of Rosborough, setting a vigorous example by swinging his arms and lifting those muscular legs high as an example to the 20-some seated student residents. Not that they’ll stay seated for long in the arduous hour-long class of leg lifting, arm swinging, bending, stretching, pull-ing, turning, rotating, all to the sound of Alton’s clearly articulated, loud counting (no mike needed here) “... 28, 29, 30, and let’s do 30 more! 30, 29, 28...”

It helps that Alton is cheerful and upbeat as the class moves from seat-ed exercises to balance exercises at the bar: 30 seconds on one foot, hand as lightly as you can on the bar, 30 seconds on the other foot. Lift left leg and left arm out to the side, now close your eyes; tap your foot lightly to the front, to the side, to the back, now close your eyes.

Judging by the groans of relief when the class ends, at 3:30 on the dot, it has been a vigorous workout, one aimed as the class title suggests at increasing strength and mobility.

But Alton’s Tuesday-Thursday classes aren’t the only ones offered by the Fitness staff at Asbury. In addition to pool classes like Wet Yet?, Water Workout, Water Walking, Aqua Balance and Pace Yourself, you can take On Your Seat, Light & Easy Aerobics, or Total Body Tune Up. There’s also Yoga, Tai Chi, Ping Pong and monthly opportunities for danc-

ing at the Tea Dance Socials in Ros-borough. There you might even get a chance to dance with Sr. Fitness Professional James Warner, one of the smoothest, most graceful danc-ers around. Line up, ladies!

The benefits of exercise are legion and well documented: more energy, better health, less risk of falling, a brighter outlook on life. And exer-cise is so in vogue at Asbury now, with many classes in full swing, right as the No Falls Initiative is ramping up for a spring launch. Nonethe-less, there may be some who shy away from the word “exercise,” find-ing it incompatible with their own self-image, thinking perhaps, “After all, I’m not a ‘jock,’ why should I exercise?” or even, “I have so many health problems: exercise might be bad for me.”

For these hesitant folks, AMV Fit-ness Director Cathy Moxley and other leaders of the No Falls Initia-tive have what might turn out to be a tantalizing plan: focus on the No Falls Initiative, whose goal is to at least reduce the number of falls on campus, a goal surely everyone can subscribe to. To achieve that, Cathy Moxley envisions a targeted “We’ll bring exercise to you” approach, providing physical assessments and suitable exercise to residents right in their own building each month. “My message is always,” says Cathy, “that it’s never too late and it’s never too early to get started with some amount of exercise, and that even small investments yield great great benefits regardless of your cur-rent state of health, and regardless of your current limitations or lack thereof, we can see improvement in people of all ability levels.”

Resident Facility Date of Death

Franklin Caffee WHCC/Kindley/Diamond 01-19-2012

Dr. Ernest Beroz WHCC/Diamond 01-22-2012

Phyllis Weber WHCC/Diamond 01-24-2012

James A. Porter Mund 01-30-2012

Charles Reese Wallace 02-01-2012

Betty Shima Diamond 02-05-2012

Dr. James Robertson Wallace 02-06-2012

Maria Merlos WHCC 02-09-2012

William Ehlers WHCC/Community 02-13-2012

Shirley Almquist WHCC/Kindley/Mund 02-13-2012

Doris “Lucine” McCall Edwards-Fisher 02-16-2012

In Memoriam

Village life March 2012 11

National Symphony at the Kennedy Center (S) Watkins x5765New season—1:30 p.m. on Fridays3/16/12, 4/6/12, 4/20/12

Olney Theater—Saturday matinee (S) Barr x52123/10/12 “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”5/5/12 “The 39 Steps”

Nat’l Philharmonic at Strathmore (S) Klepek x5743New Season –Sunday Matinee4/29/12

Baltimore Symphony at Strathmore (S) Klepek x5743New Season—Friday Evening 5/4/12

Arena Stage at the Mead Center (S) Watkins x5765New season—Wednesdays at noon3/21/12 “Ah, Wilderness” Eugene O’Neill6/13/12 “The Music Man”—Musical7/18/12 “Like Water for Chocolate”—Musical

4/2/12 Cherry Blossom Cruise and Lunch Otto x5299

6/23-30/12 New England Islands—Cruise Otto x5299

10/6-13/12 Mississippi River Paddleboat Otto x5299 Pittsburgh to Cincinnati

(S) Subscription Series

Theater and Travel committee

Schedule

Mac and Zil

our Journey To AsburyBy Keith Steele, Wallace

In this column I usually write about old things at Asbury. Since my wife and I have been

here 13 years I believe we can be classified as “old things”. So this is about how we got here.

I have been a Methodist most of my life except for certain times when I wasn’t much of anything and when for a period of about a year I was a Baptist. Our family moved to this area, actually Prince Georges County, in 1940. We joined the Mt. Rainier Methodist Church. A few years later I became quite active in the Methodist Youth Fel-lowship (MYF). About twice a year our group would come out to what we called, “The Old Peoples Home” in Gaithersburg. We would bring cupcakes and a worship service for the residents. (As often as not it was a song service. We liked to sing but weren’t too much on preaching). So that was my first introduction to Asbury. I remember we used to say, “God, I hope we never end up in a place like that.” Of course we were never going to grow “old”.

Now a word about Genevieve, my wife. She also came to the area in the early forties. She lived, initial-ly with her cousin and her family in Northwest Washington. An aunt of her cousin’s husband just hap-pened to be Ida Rhodes Groover. If you have read Marshall Groten-huis’ book you will know that Mrs. Groover was active at Asbury with the Guild in its early years and was the first woman to be appointed to the Board of Directors. Gene-vieve remembers how Mrs. Groover would make the trip each week to Asbury from northwest Washington to see her “girls”. It was quite a trip in those days.

Next we need to fast-forward. I married, had three children, was widowed and was working at the Department of Agriculture. Gene-vieve had married but she too was

widowed and she also worked at the Department of Agriculture. We fell in love and were married, sold both their houses and moved to Montgomery County. Shortly after moving here Genevieve retired and became active in the National Asso-ciation of Retired Federal Employ-ees (NARFE). A few years later, I retired and also became active in NARFE. And where did NARFE hold its meetings? Yes, they were and still are held at Asbury Methodist Village.

In 1984 we decided that someday we might want to live at Asbury and since there was, at the time, an eight year waiting list we should put our name on the list. At that time, I don’t know if it is still required, we were asked to supply a letter of recom-mendation. The late Reverend Wal-ter Hill of the Trott Building was our NARFE Chaplain and he graciously wrote the letter for us. I still have a copy of his handwritten letter. I remember talking to my daughter at that time and her comment was, “Dad, your not ready for that”. My reply was, “no, but someday we will be”.

Years passed and in 1997, I men-tioned to Genevieve that Asbury was going to start a new building and it would take about two years for its completion. We decided it would be nice to move into a new building with all new residents. Genevieve had never had a new, new home and furthermore with some heart trouble I had had, the time seemed right. I believe some of our friends thought we were out of our minds but so many people don’t really know what Asbury is like. One of my children early on even asked me if they would let us out if we wanted to go somewhere else for dinner on some special occasion. One trip to Asbury and particularly to a meal in the 417 dining room convinced the children we were doing the right thing.

Chit Chatter From the AMV Historical Society

Continued on page 15

12 March 2012 Village life

eduardo and Aurora Sevilla courtyard Homes 308,

x6901Eduardo and Aurora Sevilla were

the first arrivals at the Courtyard Homes in March 2011.

Born and raised in Manila, Philip-pines, they met at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where Eduardo received his degree in Chemical Engi-neering. Aurora, a Fulbright scholar, earned her Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, specializing in the then pioneer field of Teaching English as a Second Language. They married after graduation and decided to stay in the United States.

Eduardo’s career in the pharma-ceutical industry began with Abbott Laboratories near Chicago. Initially specializing in the fermentation pro-cess of antibiotic production, he rose up the corporate ladder to become Director of International Manufac-turing. This job took him to all of Abbott’s manufacturing plants in the Asia/Pacific region, Europe and Latin America. Aurora chose to stay home to raise their two children, but she was also heavily involved as a volun-teer in the school reading program, tutoring non-English speakers, and promoting literacy. Later Eduardo joined a New York City pharmaceu-tical firm, and the family settled in Bergen County, NJ. Eventually Edu-ardo started a consulting business working with major firms such as Pfizer and Merck. In 2000, he retired for health reasons.

Aurora and Eduardo traveled to all seven continents, both professionally and for pleasure. Aurora has seen all but one of the New Seven Won-ders of the World (man-made). The Sevillas enjoy cruising and immersed themselves in the cultural offerings of New York City; they look forward to doing the same in the DC area. Aurora is an opera buff and ballet stu-dent and continues to take classes. Eduardo is an avid student of World War II, having witnessed it in the Philippines. He would like to con-nect with WWII veterans in Asbury to talk about war experiences. Also high among his interests is a love of all kinds of airplanes even though he

is not an aviator.Eduardo and Aurora have joined

the Asbury Catholic Community. Their daughter, Susan McQuade, lives in Great Falls, VA, and their son Edward lives in Wellesley, MA. They have five grandchildren ranging in age from 13 to 21.

—Maria E. Roberts, Courtyard Homes Reporter

Heinz and carolyn Bondy courtyard Homes 302,

x6898Heinz Bondy was born in Gander-

sheim, Germany, near Hamburg. He and his family left the country in 1936 and immigrated to the US in 1938. The family settled in Lennox, Massachusetts where his parents ran the Windsor Mountain School, a coed boarding school. During World War II Heinz enlisted in the US Army. On D-Day he landed on Omaha Beach, thus returning to the continent of his birth two days after his 20th birthday. His Army division went on to liberate Paris. As Heinz spoke German and French, his mission was to interview and glean intelligence from captured soldiers.

Returning home, he completed his undergraduate work at Swarthmore College and became the first male student at Bryn Mawr College where he earned a Master’s degree in Edu-cation. Thereafter he served 25 years as headmaster of Windsor Mountain School in Lennox, later becoming Director of Student Affairs at the Uni-versity of Massachusetts in Boston.

Carolyn was born in New York. Her father was in the Navy so her childhood was spent near naval facil-ities in Connecticut and Massachu-setts. She earned her undergraduate degree in history from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. There-after she taught history at Windsor Mountain School in Lennox where she and Heinz were married.

Later Carolyn earned a Master’s degree in Biology at MIT, after which she enrolled in the Boston University School of Medicine. After her MD

clarification on the FoundationBy Alma Stewart, Diamond

“Asbury Guild! Asbury Foundation! Benevolent Care! I’m always getting

them mixed up!” This was the frus-trated remark I overheard in the ele-vator one day. The door closed and I did not have time then to explain these organizations to my neighbor. But if you have ever felt like him, perhaps the following will help.

The Asbury Guild is dedicated to enhancing the lives of the residents of Kindley Assisted Living and Wil-son Health Care Center. “Guild” is a short word–only five letters. The Asbury Guild has a limited focus–only Kindley and Wilson residents. It sponsors Elves Day, birthday parties, Bingo, outings, entertainment and special projects for this small group of campus residents.

“Foundation”, however, is a much longer word–ten letters. The Asbury

Foundation is dedicated to the promise of benevolent care and to improving the lives of all our cam-pus residents. Its focus is wider and all-inclusive. Last Christmas, instead of sending cards to your neighbors, you probably wrote a check to the Asbury Foundation, earmarking it for the Benevolent Care Fund. If you attended the concert given by the Asbury Singers, you heard that the Foundation had paid for the sheet music that this group used. More recently, a gift from a generous donor enabled the Foundation to fund the Wi-Fi program on campus.

Does this help you to tell the organizations apart? The group that concentrates only on Kindley and Wilson has a short name–Guild. The group that cares about all the resi-dents on campus–the Foundation-- has a longer name. I hope it helps my friend in the elevator, too.

Guild TidbitsBy Jean Hubbell, Villas

Campus newcomers may wonder why our chapel is called the Guild Memorial

Chapel. In l926 Asbury Methodist Home was opened in what is now the Administration Building. In l934 an auxiliary Guild was formed com-posed of members of the Methodist Churches in Washington and all of Maryland except the Eastern Shore. The Guild is the oldest volunteer organization at Asbury and worked to support the Home Family and enhance their lives in numerous ways. One of those ways came as a result of the original home becom-ing in need of serious repair. A new home was planned and work begun but there were insufficient funds to include a chapel which was a very important part of the Home for the residents. Thus Barbara Clemons, then the Home Administrator, came to the Guild for help and the Guild responded with a $300,000 pledge for the construction of a chapel as an integral part of the new home. In l984 the Home Family moved to their new home complete with a chapel which was furnished with many memorial gifts as well as the Guild’s pledge. However, it was less than ten years later that new regula-tions required the Home Family to move again into independent apart-ments, assisted living suites or the Health Care Center and the “new

home” is now renovated to the Park View Apartments. But the chapel is still there attached to but separate from Park View. It is always available and is the campus chapel for every-one. The former Home entrance area with its beautiful stained glass windows was expanded into a lovely narthex where small recep-tions after services can be held. The chapel is now the Guild Memorial Chapel in recognition of its gift to Asbury residents.

All Guild gifts were not such expensive ones. One that met a need was a large-screen TV for the social hall. This provided an opportunity for groups to gather and watch pro-grams of interest to them. One of the first uses was for the football fans (mostly the men) to watch the Super Bowl together. The TV was purchased by the Guild and then a cabinet stand was made at Asbury and after the move from the home the TV on its stand was moved to Kindley Assisted Living where it is still in use. The Guild responds to all sorts of needs which you may have heard about through informa-tion provided in your campus mail-boxes and/or at council meetings. Your memberships are very impor-tant to enable the Guild to continue its work. Thank you to all for your support through financial member-ships and gifts and volunteer help.

Welcome New Residents

Photo: Maria E. Roberts

Continued on page 13

Village life March 2012 13

degree she completed her internship and residency at Boston University Hospital. A research fellowship led to her distinguished career at NIH where she is now Chief of the Sec-tion on Epigenetics and Develop-ment. Her research improved the diagnosis of chromosomal disorders affecting development in women and girls.

Heinz and Carolyn are the parents of two sons, Peter and Eric, and they have four grandchildren. The Bond-ys moved to Asbury Methodist Vil-lage in May 2011 with their canine friends Cole and Roxy. They have been impressed with the friendliness of AMV staff and residents and look forward to enjoying more of AMV’s varied resources.

—Maria Roberts, Courtyard Homes Reporter

Alice and Art Johnson courtyard Homes 208,

x 6879Alice is from New Jersey, Art is

from Indiana. They met and mar-ried in Washington, DC and lived in the Walnut Hill area of Gaithersburg for fifty-one years. Both of them had active roles in the citizens’ associa-tion there. They relocated to the Asbury retirement community dur-ing January, 2012. They have three grown children, two sons and one daughter, as well as two grandsons. They are charter members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gaith-ersburg and both of them were leaders for many years in numerous church activities.

Art is a graduate of Purdue Univer-sity in Indiana. He was a Navy Sea-bee and worked at the Naval Ordi-nance Laboratory in White Oak, Sil-ver Spring for thirty-two years. Alice is a graduate of American University in Washington, DC. Although she did not enjoy fulltime employment after marriage, she has been a substi-tute for Montgomery County Public Schools since the early 1970s. Alice is a member of Alpha Chi Omega, a national women’s sorority, and con-tinues an active involvement with

that organization. They both like to travel. In the

past, they have driven throughout the United States, even across Can-ada. They enjoy cruises and have been in the Caribbean, Hawaii, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, and the Mediterranean. They play in a couple’s pinochle group. Alice enjoys bridge and also plays in a senior’s tennis class with the city of Gaithersburg. They both enjoy reading. Their children hosted a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for them in May, 2010 at the Golden Bull in Gaithersburg.

The Johnsons have several friends who preceded them in moving to Asbury Methodist Village which will help them feel right at home.

—Marie E. Roberts- Courtyard Homes Reporter

Jim and Lois Freeman courtyard Homes 435,

x 6984Both Jim and Lois were born in

Washington, DC. Lois earned an edu-cation degree from the University of Maryland where she met Jim in 1949. She taught secondary school Science and English, and trained State Farm employees in grammatical public communication. Maryland Gover-nor Harry Hughes appointed Lois to the statewide commission planning implementation of the 911 Emergen-cy System. She served as Director of Christian Education for the Episco-pal Church in Frederick and also as a member of the fundraising and pub-licity committee for the Baltimore Aquarium. She was president of the Inner Wheel Club, a support group for Rotary Clubs, and participated in the Capital Speakers’ Club provid-ing public speaking instruction for people polishing their presentation skills.

Jim describes his life as a straight-line trajectory. Enlisting in the Army, he served twice in Korea: once before and again during the Korean War. He earned a degree in industrial education, a field now called indus-trial engineering, from the Univer-sity of Maryland. Further education included Utility Executive certifica-

tion from the University of Michigan and studies in combustion science at Stephens Institute. Jim managed the Frederick subsidiary of Washington Gas Light Company, later serving as Director of Customer Service and as Vice President of Marketing and Research for the company. He was active in the American Gas Associa-tion, directing the Section on Market-ing. An active Rotarian, he has served as president of the DC and Freder-ick Rotary Clubs. Volunteering as a firefighter at age 15 began a long involvement in volunteer firefighting leading to teaching at the Univer-sity of Maryland Fire Institute. Sena-tor Mac Mathias appointed Jim to a board to interview and recommend appointees to the United States Ser-vice Academies.

Jim and Lois have four sons, five grandsons, and a great-grandson. Happily, most of them live in the area. The Freemans have enjoyed worldwide travel, including Japan, an African safari, and watching a polo match played on frozen Lake San Moritz in Switzerland. They moved to AMV from their home five miles away, and now continue old friend-ships and community activities.

—Maria E. Roberts, Courtyard Homes Reporter

roger evans Mund 102, X6727

R o g e r was born in Thomas, West Vir-ginia, but the family moved to Oakmont, Pe n n s y l -vania near Pittsburgh,

when he was three. At age nine he began caddying at a public golf course there, and after two years, went to caddy at Oakmont Coun-try Club. When he was thirteen, the club was host to the 1953 U.S. Open, and Roger, caddying for one of the amateurs, watched as Ben Hogan won that year. It is some-thing he has not forgotten. He went on to teach himself the game and has played all his life.

Roger has an Architectural Engi-neering degree from Penn State and has earned professional engineering certificates from five states. After college he worked in several places and then set up a small consult-ing engineering firm in the Wil-liamsport, Pennsylvania area. In the

course of his professional life, he traveled to Nova Scotia, Venezuela, Finland and throughout the north-eastern United States.

He met his wife, Mary Westermann, in college and they were married in August, 1964 shortly after they graduated from Penn State. Roger has four daughters, all of whom live in this general area, and eight grand-children, whom he sees regularly. Mary died in 2007. His daughters found Asbury for him and urged him to come to be nearby. He moved into Mund on November 30, 2011.

Roger enjoys playing golf and watching golf and other sports as well as poker on TV, working jigsaw puzzles and spending time with his family.

—Anne Porter, Mund Reporter

John Fenton Diamond 918, x5467

John Fen-ton sold the Wa s h i n g -ton State home that he and his late wife, Antoinette, shared and moved into A s b u r y

on January 14, 2012 to be near his son and daughter-in-law, who live in Potomac. John describes himself as a self-educated man. A child of the Depression, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 18, serving in the Pacific as a radar operator on an aircraft car-rier during WWII. He was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries he sus-tained in one of the battles in which his vessel was severely damaged.

While in the navy, John earned his GED but most of his education has come through a lifetime of extensive reading. John wants his reading to be educational; he enjoys historical novels and travel writing and has also read a great deal of nonfiction. When his son, Matthew, was born John was determined that his son would receive the education that his father never had, so John read a lot of science books. Matthew is now a scientist with a PhD working at the National Institutes of Health.

John spent most of his life in Hart-ford, CT working in his own busi-ness as a wallpaper hanger. He put Antoinette through college and she became a primary school teacher. He read up on home construction

Welcome New Residents

Continued on page 14

Photo: Maria E. Roberts

14 March 2012 Village life

Welcome New Residentsand he and Antoinette did 95% of the labor in building their new home outside of Hartford. He also built a 21-foot sailboat which he sailed off of Rhode Island.

He and Antoinette traveled exten-sively both in the U.S and abroad and on one of their trips in their small motor home, they fell in love with Washington’s Cascade Mountains. They bought five acres of land and hired a builder. However, they did about 60% of the labor themselves on their retirement home with a beautiful view of Mount Baker. John spent most of the next 20 years land-scaping and caring for 2 1/2 acres of their land and he also built a green-house for Antoinette’s plants.

In addition to reading, John enjoys square and round dancing and he is a former EMT volunteer.

—Janet Garman, Diamond Reporter

Sherrill and richard (Dick) Lambert

Diamond 305, x 5979Sherrill and Dick Lambert moved to

Asbury from Rockville on January 5, 2012. They have also lived in Whea-ton and Potomac and spent over a year in Munich, Germany in 1966-67 when Dick was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to do post doctoral work at the Technical University in Munich. While there, they purchased a Volk-swagen and put 29,000 miles on it traveling throughout Europe all the way to Istanbul. During this time they spent time in the Swiss Alps. A large painting of a favorite Alpine mountain as well as other art pieces from their travels grace their Asbury apartment.

The couple met in Providence, Rhode Island where Dick was earn-ing a PhD at Brown University and Sherrill was teaching kindergarten and first grade. Sherrill, the daughter of an American Baptist pastor, was born in Portland, Maine and lived in various places in New England. Educated at Messiah Academy and Barrington College, she did graduate work at Rhode Island College and later taught music in North Kings-

town, RI. She also taught piano and organ and conducted a women’s ensemble.

Dick grew up on a farm in Massa-chusetts and received an AB in phys-ics from Lehigh University in Beth-lehem, PA. He has been an assistant and an associate professor at the Uni-versity of Rhode Island and a senior scientist at SAIC (Science Applicatons International Corporation). For six-teen years, he was a Program Direc-tor in Physical Oceanography at the National Science Foundation.

The couple has one daughter, Lisa-Beth. Lisa-Beth currently plays in the first violin section of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Prior to that she played with the National Symphony Orches-tra. In 1976 when Lisa-Beth was four years old, Sherrill suffered a massive stroke. The stroke has immobilized her right side and made communica-tion difficult. It has not dimmed the sparkle in her eyes nor dimmed her beautiful smile. Sherrill says that she wishes that it had not happened but it did and she could either frown or smile and she decided to smile. She continues to exercise and to travel. Their recent travels have taken them to Turkey, Greece, Japan, Norway, Alas-ka, Hawaii and the northwestern USA.

They are active in their church, Fourth Presbyterian in Bethesda. Dick enjoys photography and read-ing and does consulting work in oceanography. For many years, Dick served as the administrator of a Chris-tian music festival held each summer at Winona Lake, Indiana. Sherrill also participated and in their apartment hangs a framed picture surrounded by messages of love from those at the festival, given to the couple in celebration of their fortieth wedding anniversary. Asbury welcomes the Lamberts.—Janet Garman, Diamond Reporter

elizabeth Garritt Diamond 611, x5961

E l i z a -beth Gar-ritt moved into Asbury on Decem-ber 22, 2011 from B e t h e s d a where she had resided since 1954.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Elizabeth came to Washington with her family while she was still in high school. For two years she attended Pem-broke College, which at that time

was the women’s college affiliated with Brown University, but was unable to continue for financial reasons. After receiving her RN in Kansas City, Kansas, she worked as a nurse in both Los Angeles and at the old Stanford University Hospital, which was then in the city of San Francisco. Coming back to Washing-ton, she obtained her BS from Cath-olic University and went into public health nursing. Much of Elizabeth’s work was in Montgomery County, principally in Damascus, Poolesville and Gaithersburg near the Asbury campus, so she has been familiar with Asbury for many years.

Elizabeth met her husband, Mel-vin, a civil engineer, at National Presbyterian Church. Melvin passed away just as they were getting ready to move into Asbury. She has two children, a son who lives in Fred-erick, Colorado near Denver and a daughter who lives in Frederick, MD and two grandchildren who live in Colorado.

Elizabeth and her husband enjoyed traveling in the US. A partic-ularly memorable trip was through the western US. For many years, she volunteered at the Montgomery County thrift shop in Bethesda and eventually she was hired to act as manager of the shop two days a week. We are happy to welcome Elizabeth to Asbury.—Janet Garman, Diamond Reporter

connie Terry Diamond 212, x4491

Although Connie Terry o f f i c i a l l y moved into Asbury on D e c e m b e r 27, 2011, because of family Christ-mas gather-ings she cel-

ebrated the New Year by sleeping in her Asbury apartment for the first time on January 1, 2012. Connie’s daughter, Stacey, an attorney who is at present a full-time mom, and her husband live in Montgomery Village with their three children, ages 5,3, and 9 months. Being close to Stac-ey’s family is one reason that Asbury appealed to Connie and you may see Connie’s grandchildren with their devoted grandmother around the campus.

As a military wife, Connie has lived all over the world but she moved here from Chester, Virginia

as her husband was stationed at Fort Lee when he passed away at age 43 over 20 years ago. Her sons were 20 and 19 and Stacey was only 14 at the time. Being a military wife, Connie learned to be resourceful. Moving every 3-4 years meant not only changing homes but changing careers. She has a BA in Business Administration, and along the way she did post graduate studies at the Department of the Army Comptrol-ler Internship program, Syracuse University’s School of Business and at the University of Maryland where she became licensed as a substance abuse counselor. At one time she was on special assignment at the Pentagon to help develop the bud-get for the U.S. Army. Prior to join-ing the federal government, she was with the VA Department of Social Services for 12 years. She says that she learned to enjoy whatever she did.

Connie has volunteered at the Veteran’s Administration Nursing Home and as a middle school aide. She enjoys reading, music and trav-eling, particularly in the Caribbean. Her two sons live in North Caro-lina and Wisconsin and have given her five additional grandchildren, the oldest of whom is seventeen. She is pleased to be at Asbury and is very happy with the renovation of her apartment. She wishes to thank everyone at Asbury for their graciousness, warmth and help in welcoming her to this community. We are happy that Connie chose to live at Asbury.—Janet Garman, Diamond Reporter

John and Marge Locke Trott 412, x5054

After living 15 years in their com-fortable West Virginia home, they noticed their grandchildren were not comfortable with the trip to visit their grandparents. When they looked for a location closer to their children and their families, they found Asbury affordable as well as meeting their wish to have a home

Continued on page 15

Photo: Hal Gaut

Village life March 2012 15

where they could continue their participation in Catholic services.

Children Bill and Barbara live in nearby Maryland. Jean and Jim with daughter Abbie and son Ian are close by in Virginia. One daughter Louise lives in New Orleans and another daughter Mary lives near Chicago with granddaughter Lorelei.

John was born in LaSalle, IL. He was educated at St. Bede Academy and attended Illinois University where he received a degree in aero-nautical engineering. John’s career employment included working for McDonnell-Douglas and Booz Allen. He was the first executive director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and for 18 years worked in accrediting testing labo-ratories. He retired as President of the American Association for Labo-ratory Accreditation, currently with 2400 accreditations in all fields of testing.

Marge was born in Chicago, IL and attended Illinois University, where she met John. She received her degree in accounting. She was fortunate to be able to stay at home while they raised their six children. After their youngest was in 5th grade she worked for 15 years for the City of Rockville, MD. She enjoys vari-ous kinds of needlework, puzzles, and computer games. She has been active in church work, visiting the sick.

John was ordained a deacon by Cardinal Hickey in 1991 and has served at St. Jude in Rockville and St. Vincent de Paul in Berkeley Springs. Marge has supported that ministry in many ways and has been active in the church in her own right. They hope to continue to serve the peo-ple of God.—Dr. Bob Hartman, Trott Reporter

Mercer and Jean cross Wallace 117, x6226

Mercer was born in 1930 in Denver, Colorado, raised here and received his degree in journalism at the University of Colorado. He spent two years in the U.S. Army and then went to work as a reporter for the

Denver Post in 1954.Jean was born in 1930 in Bayard,

Nebraska. She was raised there and then she trained as a nurse in St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver and attended the University of Denver. She graduated in 1952 as a regis-tered nurse with a Bachelor of Sci-ence degree. Jean went to work as a nurse in the Denver Public School system.

Mercer and Jean met and were married in 1956. That same year Mercer took a job as reporter with the Minneapolis Tribune. They moved there where Jean taught nurs-ing until the birth of their first child, a son, in January of 1959. In that same year Mercer was assigned to be a one-man bureau chief for The Tribune in Bismarck ND. Their sec-ond child, a daughter, was born in 1960 in Bismarck. After two years in Bismarck they moved back to Min-neapolis where Mercer covered state government and politics. Their third child, a boy was born in 1963. After a brief stint in public relations for Minneapolis Honeywell, Mercer and the family moved to the DC area in 1965; here Mercer took a position as a press aide to a Congressman. In 1969 he became the political edi-tor of the Congressional Quarterly. In 1977 Mercer joined the Washing-ton Bureau of the Los Angeles Times where he worked until 1984. He then joined the National Geograph-ic News Service where he worked until he retired in 1995.

After they were settled in in Bethes-da, MD Jean took a position with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services where she worked for 25 years; she retired in 1996.

Jean and Mercer both enjoy doing volunteer work, especially since they retired. They both like to travel. They came to Asbury in October 2011.

—Bob Bernero, Wallace Reporter

Dorothy camilla Butler Trott 602, x5312

D o r o t h y Butler grew up in Niagara Falls, New York, graduat-ing from high school dur-ing the Great Depression. She was fortu-nate enough to obtain a

position at Niagara Alkali Chemical Co. One didn’t pass up a job offer in

those days!Dorothy married Howard Butler

while working at Niagara Alkali. Her husband entered the Navy and they were stationed in Ohio for three years. Their first baby, a son, was born, and they especially enjoyed the friendship of other Navy couples with their offspring. Howard was a Navy recruiter. From Ohio they returned to Lewiston, New York and nearby family.

Dorothy thoroughly enjoyed “Clubs”. She became a HART volun-teer, a group planned by the church, to care for the elderly in their own homes. She also joined Study Club which celebrated its 100th anniver-sary during her membership. Each meeting featured a report, carefully researched and presented by a mem-ber to expand the listeners’ knowl-edge on a specific topic. Of course, being an active den mother came naturally to Dorothy. Her three chil-dren followed her love of learning, and each obtained advanced degrees from their colleges. Their son, David, took his parents to Rome, Italy and nearby areas, so they could experi-ence the land of their mother’s heri-tage. Dorothy and her husband (for as long as he was able) took an active role in the Presbyterian Church of Lewiston.

As Howard’s health failed, the three children helped their parents move to Rockville, MD to be closer to them. After Howard’s passing in 2011, they moved their mother to Asbury. Since January Dorothy has truly made her Trott apartment into her cozy home with a large macramé hanging she had created, several min-iature collections displayed in a wall holder and on tables, drawings and paintings, plus pots and pans ready for baking and making her special soups. These are only “a few of her favorite things”.

Welcome Dorothy! Asbury has many activities for a creative person like you.

—Lois Lord, Trott Reporter

Marjorie Jovanovic-Johnson edwards-Fisher 301, x4689

Marjor ie Jovanovic-J o h n s o n moved into E d w a r d s -F i s h e r apartment 301 on July 14, 2011. Born in Phil-a d e l p h i a ,

Pennsylvania, Marjorie received her Bachelor of Music degree from West-minster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey and her Master’s Degree in Voice from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Marjorie was an instructor in voice and organ at the Preparatory Department of the Peabody Conser-vatory of Music at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1955 until 1995. A recipient of the Mary Woolley Fellowship for independent music study, she was a choir member and a soprano soloist at the American Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris. Marjorie has been an organist-choir director over the years in seven churches, five of which are in the area the last being St. John’s Episcopal in Olney from which she retired. Occasionally, she still serves as a substitute organist.

Married in Paris, Marjorie became a widow after fifty-two happy years. An Episcopalian, she has a son and a daughter and is now the proud grandmother of both a boy and a girl. Marjorie enjoys reading, but since her first love is music she is always ready to attend a concert or an opera. From 1989-1995 she was an instructor in the Elderhos-tel program. Using her home as a studio, Marjorie inspired many of her pupils to become active local performers.

When the need arose to vacate her sixty-two year old home, Mar-jorie thought long and hard before selecting Asbury Methodist Vil-lage for retirement living. On this happy musical note, we residents of Edwards-Fisher shout, “Bravo!”

—Joan Dunlop, Edwards-Fisher Reporter

Welcome New Residents

Photo: Hal Gaut

Photo: Rosemary Pasek

On April 23, 1999 we moved into our apartment in the new 419 Build-ing. The building was dedicated on April 30 (Genevieve’s birthday). The speaker for the occasion was Art Lin-kletter. A few evenings later Asbury had one of its famous elegant dinner affairs. This was a coincidence but we couldn’t help but believe that all this was especially for us.

I am sure that many of the other residents at Asbury have more inter-esting stories of how they came to be here which are just waiting to be told.

CHATTERContinued from page 14

16 March 2012 Village life

Asbury Methodist VillageCommunications Department201 Russell AvenueGaithersburg, MD 20877-2801

Non-ProfitOrganizationU. S. Postage

PAIDRockville, MD

Permit No. 4297A NEWSPAPER FOR ASBURY METHODIST VILLAGE

VILLAGE LIFE: A NEWSPAPER FOR ASBURY METHODIST VILLAGE

ASBURY RESIDENTS, YOU’RE INVITEDTO INTRODUCE YOUR FRIENDS TO ASBURY AND SHOW THEM

‘The Best Is Yet To Come’Invite your friends to join you for a special eveningof dancing, conversation, tasty hors d’oeuvres and

plenty of fun. Best of all, it’s FREE! All you need todo is bring a friend who may be interested in

moving to Asbury. Please call the number below toget a form to fill out with your friend’s

information, and present it at thedoor as your “ticket.”

HEFNER AUDITORIUM4 P.M. TO 7 P.M., SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2012

RSVP to 301-216-4100 no later than Monday, March 19. Seating is limited.

Join us at