Question: What’s a long-standing hobby of yours?
Answer: “I’ve grown orchids for 40 years and I had a large number of plants. At one point in time, I had over 600! It was a lot of work, but it was very satisfying and a real pleasure. I had a greenhouse attached to my house, which was very good in the winter. On a sunny day, it’d feel like summer in the greenhouse and most of the orchids would bloom in the winter, so therefore I had summer in the winter. It’s a satisfying thing. I started growing plants when I was five years old. My grandparents on both sides of the family were farmers and I think that it just is something in my blood. When I was in Florida, I saw some small orchid plants hanging on a rack at a restaurant. I really liked plants, so I decided to just buy a few of them. Two years later one of them bloomed and that set me off to starting with orchids. I gradually increased my number until my wife said, ‘You can’t keep any more orchids in the house. You’re misting the plants and spraying my curtains, so you’ll have to get a greenhouse.’ So that’s what I did and from then on it multiplied until I had hundreds of them. I joined the St. Louis Orchid Society and was a member there for many years. I went to different shows and I eventually set up displays for the society. I enjoyed it and still to this day, I’ll attend some of the meetings. I wanted to do orchids because I felt like so many people were afraid of them and I just wanted to prove to myself that they weren’t any harder than any other plants, if you have the right conditions.” – Al Mertz, resident Friendship Village Chesterfield
#WeAreFriendshipVillage #seniorliving #retirementcommunity #FVatHome #assistedliving #MemoryCare
The above photo and text are part of a year-long project we call We Are Friendship Village. We are posting these photos and brief interviews to our website’s blog section every day as we talk with residents at Friendship Village Chesterfield and Friendship Village Sunset Hills. The idea is to give a short introduction to the residents who make up our wonderful senior living communities and give you a peek at something you might not know about them!
At this year’s end, we will publish A BOOK featuring all the great residents who participated. AND PARTICIPANTS get A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK! During this year, we will also be sharing these photos and stories on Facebook and other social media such as Instagram, so look for them and please follow the hashtag #WeAreFriendshipVillage to stay current with the project!
We think it’s a great chance to share a bit about who we are! Residents’ participation takes less than ten minutes, so it won’t take much time to be a part of it and we think everyone will enjoy getting to know their neighbors and friends a little bit better!
If interested in participating (or know someone else who might be), feel free to give us a call at (314) 270-7837 or email at nagysteve@fvstl.com or drop by the marketing suites in Sunset Hills or Chesterfield. We have 365 of these to do over the course of the year, so everyone is welcome!
We look forward to seeing you as we get to share insights about the senior living residents who are making our Friendship Village retirement communities so great!
Thanks again!