Meet Nancy
The big porches at Village Hearth convinced me it is the right place for me. Nostalgia over the 2 bed / 2 bath unit's wraparound porch literally hit me in the face.
I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, the third of four children. Both of my parents were raised in the hills of Eastern Kentucky in the middle of coal country. My father was born in a large rambling farmhouse, as were his six brothers and sisters. It was at this same farmhouse, with its big wraparound porch, where we vacationed every summer with his parents and any other aunts, uncles, or cousins who were visiting at the time. We gathered eggs, helped string beans and visited the one pig and cow. If we made it to the barn early enough, Grandad might squirt warm milk into our mouths. My younger sister enjoyed scratching the pig’s back with a corn cob. The pig liked it, too.
During the day, we often climbed the hill behind the house or swung on one of two porch swings. Grandad kept bees, so there was always a gallon jar of honey, on the comb, in the middle of the huge dining room table. Grandma made fresh biscuits and gravy for breakfast every day. The ham and bacon were from the last pig who lived in the barn. Sometimes there were so many of us visiting that we had to eat in shifts.
There was an apple orchard directly behind the barn, a smokehouse in the side yard. An ample garden took up the rest of the “bottom” land. Time spent at the farm was idyllic. At night we would gaze at the stars while listening to crickets and frogs sing their songs. At bedtime, there were often so many cousins that three or four of us were piled into each bed (there were four of them) in the attic bedrooms.
I earned my degree in Elementary Education at Wright State University, which was then a commuter college attended primarily by retired military and housewives. During this time I married my high school sweetheart. We moved to Louisville, KY, after he received a scholarship at the University of Louisville’s Law School. The marriage was short lived. He moved away after graduating and I stayed in Louisville. It was home.
I earned my Masters Degree at U of L with a specialty in reading and worked for several years as a reading specialist, first teaching remedial reading, then as a resource to several middle and high schools. I was next a trainer with the school district and earned my certification in supervision and administration at U of L. Then I applied for, and received, a position as an elementary school principal, a position I kept the remainder of my career. After retiring, I continued to work for the school system on a part-time basis in various capacities.
Always interested in nature and in artistic endeavors, I kept a sketch pad as I was growing up. Toward the end of my career, I took drawing classes, then classes in oil and pastel. My favorite medium is pastel as I love color and the immediacy of results in pastel. I consider myself an amateur painter and a hobbyist. The paintings I create are primarily for my own enjoyment and to share with others. For the last several years I have been attending a painting open studio on Tuesdays. We are a close knit group and both support and critique one another’s work.
Kris, my life partner of 28 years, was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. When I lost her to that cancer in 2010, I started volunteering for Friend for Life. It is a cancer support organization that pairs someone with cancer, or their caregiver, with another person who has gone through the same, or similar experience.
Other organizations I have volunteered for are the Louisville animal shelter, No Kill Louisville, and the new (under construction) Waterfront Botanical Gardens. I am also a member of the Louisville chapter of Zonta, an international organization of professional women whose mission is to “raise the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.”
Animals have always been an important part of my life. Growing up, we had, at various times, a dog, a cat, a parakeet (who liked to travel on the rim of my Mother’s glasses and enjoyed nestling in her apron pocket) and a squirrel named Tommy. I now share my home with three rescue dogs and a rescue cat. Bird feeders are placed immediately outside my kitchen window where I can view the drama of multiple types of birds fighting for a place at the feeder, mothers feeding babies, etc. Every spring I anxiously await the hummingbirds returning.
I enjoy light gardening, reading, traveling, walking in nature, plays, concerts, going to dinner with friends, conversation, working with my trainer twice a week at the gym and U of L women’s basketball.
After almost 50 years in Louisville, it is time for me to move on. I stumbled on Village Hearth looking online for an LGBT-friendly retirement communities and decided it was for me. I love the diversity of my fellow community members and am looking forward to sharing my life with so many people who have a love of the land, who want to leave a small footprint on this earth and who are dedicated to aging in place, in community.
At Village Hearth, we will have a vegetable garden, maybe raise chickens. At night I will gaze at the stars, watch fireflies, listen to the frogs and crickets. And.my home in Village Hearth will have a wraparound porch similar to the one at my grandparents’ home in Eastern Kentucky. I can’t wait to hang my porch swing!
I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, the third of four children. Both of my parents were raised in the hills of Eastern Kentucky in the middle of coal country. My father was born in a large rambling farmhouse, as were his six brothers and sisters. It was at this same farmhouse, with its big wraparound porch, where we vacationed every summer with his parents and any other aunts, uncles, or cousins who were visiting at the time. We gathered eggs, helped string beans and visited the one pig and cow. If we made it to the barn early enough, Grandad might squirt warm milk into our mouths. My younger sister enjoyed scratching the pig’s back with a corn cob. The pig liked it, too.
During the day, we often climbed the hill behind the house or swung on one of two porch swings. Grandad kept bees, so there was always a gallon jar of honey, on the comb, in the middle of the huge dining room table. Grandma made fresh biscuits and gravy for breakfast every day. The ham and bacon were from the last pig who lived in the barn. Sometimes there were so many of us visiting that we had to eat in shifts.
There was an apple orchard directly behind the barn, a smokehouse in the side yard. An ample garden took up the rest of the “bottom” land. Time spent at the farm was idyllic. At night we would gaze at the stars while listening to crickets and frogs sing their songs. At bedtime, there were often so many cousins that three or four of us were piled into each bed (there were four of them) in the attic bedrooms.
I earned my degree in Elementary Education at Wright State University, which was then a commuter college attended primarily by retired military and housewives. During this time I married my high school sweetheart. We moved to Louisville, KY, after he received a scholarship at the University of Louisville’s Law School. The marriage was short lived. He moved away after graduating and I stayed in Louisville. It was home.
I earned my Masters Degree at U of L with a specialty in reading and worked for several years as a reading specialist, first teaching remedial reading, then as a resource to several middle and high schools. I was next a trainer with the school district and earned my certification in supervision and administration at U of L. Then I applied for, and received, a position as an elementary school principal, a position I kept the remainder of my career. After retiring, I continued to work for the school system on a part-time basis in various capacities.
Always interested in nature and in artistic endeavors, I kept a sketch pad as I was growing up. Toward the end of my career, I took drawing classes, then classes in oil and pastel. My favorite medium is pastel as I love color and the immediacy of results in pastel. I consider myself an amateur painter and a hobbyist. The paintings I create are primarily for my own enjoyment and to share with others. For the last several years I have been attending a painting open studio on Tuesdays. We are a close knit group and both support and critique one another’s work.
Kris, my life partner of 28 years, was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. When I lost her to that cancer in 2010, I started volunteering for Friend for Life. It is a cancer support organization that pairs someone with cancer, or their caregiver, with another person who has gone through the same, or similar experience.
Other organizations I have volunteered for are the Louisville animal shelter, No Kill Louisville, and the new (under construction) Waterfront Botanical Gardens. I am also a member of the Louisville chapter of Zonta, an international organization of professional women whose mission is to “raise the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.”
Animals have always been an important part of my life. Growing up, we had, at various times, a dog, a cat, a parakeet (who liked to travel on the rim of my Mother’s glasses and enjoyed nestling in her apron pocket) and a squirrel named Tommy. I now share my home with three rescue dogs and a rescue cat. Bird feeders are placed immediately outside my kitchen window where I can view the drama of multiple types of birds fighting for a place at the feeder, mothers feeding babies, etc. Every spring I anxiously await the hummingbirds returning.
I enjoy light gardening, reading, traveling, walking in nature, plays, concerts, going to dinner with friends, conversation, working with my trainer twice a week at the gym and U of L women’s basketball.
After almost 50 years in Louisville, it is time for me to move on. I stumbled on Village Hearth looking online for an LGBT-friendly retirement communities and decided it was for me. I love the diversity of my fellow community members and am looking forward to sharing my life with so many people who have a love of the land, who want to leave a small footprint on this earth and who are dedicated to aging in place, in community.
At Village Hearth, we will have a vegetable garden, maybe raise chickens. At night I will gaze at the stars, watch fireflies, listen to the frogs and crickets. And.my home in Village Hearth will have a wraparound porch similar to the one at my grandparents’ home in Eastern Kentucky. I can’t wait to hang my porch swing!