Woodland Ridge’s resident of the month for September is Maryland! Ms. Maryland’s parents were living in Shreveport, Louisiana when she was born and they were missing their homes in Maryland and Virginia, so they named their daughter Maryland Virginia. Ms. Maryland carried on this tradition naming her oldest daughter Maryland and naming their younger daughter Andrea Virginia. She also has one granddaughter and three grandsons.
Ms. Maryland is quite musical, playing the marimba, timpani, and organ. During WWII she played marimba for USO shows and at hospitals. Later she played timpani for the famous Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She’s been a lay pastor for Snellville United Methodist Church and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her love of genealogy sparked an interest in computers too. Ms. Maryland taught both genealogy and computers at the local senior center.
Ms. Maryland is not only musical, but she also loves all creative pursuits. She loves birds and taking photographs of them, she loves flower arranging, painting bird pictures using watercolors, and quilting. Her husband loved to do wood carving and make reed baskets, even teaching others how to make the baskets. Ms. Maryland made her quilts, Christmas ornaments, and jewelry. The couple then sold the items calling their company “The Hen House” since their last name is Henning.
A fun family story is of the time they got married. Most cars were either black or white in those days. Maryland and her husband had a white car and Grandpa had a black car. They decided to borrow Grandpa’s black car for their honeymoon trip to Florida, but their friends decorated their white car with the “Just married” sign. Well, Grandpa didn’t bother to remove the sign, driving around all week with it on the car.
After searching for a property to build their house Ms. Maryland and her husband decided to name the place Dun-hun-tin. They loved to travel, visiting every state and driving all the way to Alaska 3 times. A family tradition is to go to the Varsity on Christmas Eve, along with rides on the Pink Pig.
We love having Ms. Maryland share her beautiful smiles with us at Woodland Ridge. She is always smiling while enjoying the pets, the music, and many other activities.
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