Family Connections at Pennswood

The strong community bonds that Pennswood visitors sense is often fostered by the family ties of its residents.

Lynne Waymon and her sister, Anne Baber, have enjoyed living at Pennswood for years. Anne moved to the community in 2012, while Lynne and her husband, Todd, joined the community a few years later.

Anne Baber (left) and Lynne Waymon (center, who is Anne’s sister, pictured with her husband, Todd, far right, with cat, Chester) are an example of the many family connections at Pennswood.

“Actually, my sister was the one who found Pennswood,” Anne explains. “She knew I wanted to be closer to my daughter [Amy], who lives about 15 minutes away from here in New Jersey.”

Lynne saw an ad for Pennswood in The New Yorker and called Anne, who was living in Kansas City at the time.

“Lynne said, ‘I just saw this place in The New Yorker, and I think it might be close to Amy.’ So I got on their website and looked it up and called them and said ‘I want to come to Pennswood,’” Anne explained.

“Now most people go through this long and careful process of assessing CCRCs [Continuing Care Retirement Communities]. I just knew I liked the people who were shown on the website,” she continues. “It was kind of startling to the people in Marketing; they weren’t quite sure what to do with me, because I was so sure I wanted to come. They said, ‘Well don’t you want to come and look—’ and I said ‘No, no, no.’ I did send my daughter over to take a look, and she thought it looked fabulous.”

Once Anne was settled at Pennswood, Lynne and her husband, Todd, traveled from Washington, D.C., to visit.

“They liked it pretty well,” Anne says. “I had to be very careful there for a few months, trying not to twist their arms and be too obnoxious about ‘Well of course you’re coming to Pennswood, aren’t you?’”

However, Lynne and Todd didn’t need too much convincing that Pennswood was the right place to be. Lynne really enjoys a number of community features.

“The swimming pool, for sure,” Lynne says. “Anne and I often swim together. We get on the noodles — you know, those foam noodles — and we paddle along, and that allows us to talk to each other while we’re swimming. We do that maybe three times a week.

“The other thing is just the natural beauty of all the plantings, flowers and meadow,” she adds. “I just love it.”

Anne and Lynne appreciate getting to live so close to each other.

“We’re on a couple of committees together. When I see her in the hall, I just beam and give her a hug,” Anne smiles. “It’s very nice.”

“We’ve always loved collaborating on things,” she adds. “We actually went into business together in 1990, a business we still have.”

 “We work for corporations, or governments, or law firms … teaching business networking,” Lynne says. “It’s useful in corporations which are very big, and people have their heads buried in their computers and need to get up and talk to each other. It’s useful also in business development situations.”

“We wrote eight books together, Anne and I,” Lynne says. “About 14 years ago my husband joined the business too. Anne pretty much retired but Todd and I are still doing the business. We have trainers that go out and deliver the courses. My job is to get the business, Todd’s job is to organize everything.”

Lynne and her sister continue to stay busy at Pennswood.

“She and I are both on the Peace and Social Justice Committee,” Lynne says. “I’m a co-chair. We do many activities around that, responding to a lot of issues that we want to let our legislators to know about.

“Once a month we have a postcard party, where we get together to write postcards about a particular issue,” she adds, noting that dozens of people often participate.

“I’m one of the Chairs of the Flower Committee,” Anne says. “We have a huge committee of about 25 people. We create 14 fresh flower arrangements every week. That’s one of my favorite things to do.”

Anne is also involved in a number of more literary pursuits. She’s part of a poetry group and a book group, and chairs a committee that puts together Village Voices, a monthly online publication that features the writings of Pennswood residents.

When they’re not busy on committees or with the family business, Lynne and Todd enjoy exploring scenic Bucks County together, or relaxing at home with their two cats, Chester and Petunia.

“I love living here,” Lynne says. “It’s just divine. I can’t rave about it enough.”

Anne agrees.

“Pennswood is the best place in the world,” she says.

To learn more about making Pennswood your home, click here or call us at 215-968-9110!