Community Homes selects Joan Esbenshade as the November Resident of the Month.
Maple Terrace in Lebanon is the place Joan Esbenshade has called home for the last 13 years. It is just fine with her. “I like it here”, she says, getting right to the point, “I have a comfortable apartment, the residents are nice and so is the staff. What more can I say?”
Actually, that sums up her story. But let’s give Joan some more space. After all, she is the Community Homes of Lebanon County November Resident of the Month, and our readers demand that we learn more about her.
Let’s go back to the beginning. She is one of a household of six children. Her parents, James Devine and wife Edna were neighbors who met in the Hershey area, They married and raised their children in Lebanon. James worked on the railroad and also made a living as a barber. Edna was a stay-at-home Mom.
One of her childhood memories was the addition of new brothers and sisters born into the family. There were not enough cribs, so Edna improvised and used dresser drawers for the babies to sleep.
The children had a Catholic school education. Joan decided she had enough schooling and quit in 11th grade. She had the self-confidence to carve out her own work path. She earned money as a babysitter, worked in a restaurant and a box factory, and ended her career after 11 years as a Certified Nursing Assistant for Cedar Haven.
Joan met the love of her life, William, as a teenager, at Harding School. His sister introduced them. They married and had three children, two girls and a boy. William had the distinction of working with the team that built Three-Mile Island. The marriage lasted 37 years before William passed away.
Joan was living in a single home in Jonestown, which brings us to the situation thirteen years ago when she decided it was time to move into “someplace different”. Two twin sisters who lived at Poplar Terrace suggested she apply to Community Homes, And the rest, as they say, is history.
Her move to Maple Terrace is one she is happy about.
The children are still part of Joan’s life. The oldest daughter, Barb is a retired nurse, her middle child, William Jr, resides in the same nursing home and on the same unit that Joan worked on, and her youngest daughter, Dulcy lives in Indiana and is employed by Hershey Foods.
Joan still drives and enjoys her Community Homes lifestyle. She plays Bingo every Wednesday and enjoys meeting other residents in their Community Room for coffee and donuts every other Saturday. She also appreciates the fact that the Community Homes staff makes it clear that they are here to make her life easier. Joan singled out Lori Weise (Resident Services) and Charlotte MacNamara (Site Administrator) for “having her back” when needed.
When asked “What makes you proud?” Joan showed her sense of humor. With a wry smile, she said, “Just being alive in my 80’s”.
Community Homes of Lebanon County Management prides itself in providing safe, affordable housing to almost three hundred Lebanon County households, and sometimes “goes the extra mile” to bring outsiders to meet with groups of residents to broaden their lives. A recent example – Mayor Sherry Capello of Lebanon held a series of fun Lebanon Trivia […]
We are pleased and proud that we have accomplished the first of three phases of the Canal Affordable Housing Project. The first eight of the planned twenty-three-unit handicap-friendly units are now built and occupied. We see how this undertaking is changing the lives of new residents, which is a clear motivation to ensure the next […]
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