Lebanon - Meet a Resident

Moving to Otterbein was a Godsend for the Emmerts

Herman Emmert was a senior at Indiana Central College (now University of Indianapolis) when he received the one and only letter his father ever wrote to him.

Alfred Emmert, a pastor in the old White River Conference of the United Brethren Church in Indiana, had one request – for his son to spend his two-week summer vacation at the parsonage. There was a girl he wanted his son to meet.

That summer, Mary LaFollette, a music major at the Indiana University, was the summer replacement for the choir director. It seemed Herman's father did know best – the two were married a year later. Fifty-five years later, they have two sons and lead a happy life at Otterbein Lebanon Retirement Living Community.

"It's a God thing. It really is," Herman said. "We've been blessed in so many ways to make the decision to come to Otterbein. In no way could we have maintained a lifestyle in any other kind of situation. Coming here has facilitated our being able to continue living full and meaningful lives and finding time to do those things that we still can and want to do."

Herman said he and his wife appreciate the independent lifestyle they enjoy at Otterbein.

"We're free to do what we want to do in independent living. It's not the stereotype that people have of retirement living at all," he insisted. "People think you come to a retirement community and you're tied down to do certain things or live certain ways. That is not the case. The lifestyle gives us all the independence we want, which we thoroughly enjoy. To us, it was just like moving to another subdivision in another community and yet, we have the security that Otterbein offers like no other community can."

Herman himself felt the call to ministry his senior year of high school. After attending college, he entered the United Theological Seminary in Dayton. Herman and Mary spent the next five years of their ministry in Indiana. His first pastorate in Ohio was at the Heritage United Methodist Church in Cincinnati. His following pastorates were at Glenwood United Methodist Church in Columbus and Monroe Street United Methodist Church in Toledo. From there, Herman became the District Superintendent of the Dayton North District. Later, he served at the First United Methodist Church in Middletown.

During his time as District Superintendent, Herman served from 1985 to 1991 on Otterbein Homes' Board of Trustees. He visited Otterbein while he was a student at the Dayton seminary. He had known about Otterbein and its mission since as far back as preschool, however, and was very familiar with the Red Stockings program.

Emmert said the thing he enjoys about ministering is "helping bring lives to fulfillment." Herman was so happy serving in the ministry he couldn't stay away and ended up retiring three times. When he retired in 1996 from First United Methodist Church in Middletown, he was asked to help with admissions at the United Theological Seminary and later to teach polity and church government. He was there for four years. At the same time he was driving to Dayton three days a week, he also was an interim pastor at First United Methodist Church in Norwood for 11 months. Both positions demanded preparation time to teach class and for sermons and Bible studies.

"My wife said one day as I was preparing to go from Dayton to Cincinnati, 'I really thought you were retired,'" he chuckled. "I thought, I do need to retire again, which I did. Just a few months later, the senior pastor at Anderson Hills United Methodist Church on the east side of Cincinnati, called up and asked if I would consider being a pastor of visitation. I first said no, then he took me out to lunch. Anyone who takes me out to lunch … the battle is lost for me. I agreed and for seven years I was pastor of visitation at Anderson Hills United Methodist Church."

Herman officially retired from Anderson Hills in February 2002. After living in Cincinnati for 11 years, the Emmerts moved to a two-bedroom ranch home at Otterbein in August 2006.

"Because of Mary's stroke that she had at age 27, as we've gotten older, it has intensified," Herman said, as he explained their reasons for moving to a Continuing Care Retirement Community. "What she did in earlier years after the stroke is more difficult for her to do now. About a year before we came here, she said to me, 'What's going to happen to me if you go first?' It's something that I decided was pretty important to her, I better make it important to me."

"It's been such a blessing since we've been here with her having had the difficulties, the breaking of bones and the replacements of bones, it's been a godsend because of the care she has received," Herman explained. He said the transitional care unit and home rehabilitation have made their lives livable. "There's not been a better decision that we've made in terms of our retirement than the decision to come to Otterbein."

Herman is a huge sports enthusiast and he and Mary are both big Indiana Hoosiers basketball fans. He also loves to read and play golf and he plans to participate in Otterbein's golf league. The couple has a golf cart they ride around campus and they enjoy the private entrance to Armco Park that is available to Otterbein residents.

"Otterbein has been so cordial in making this a welcoming community," Herman said. "We came to a home with new carpet, fresh painted walls and new linoleum. We walked in as though the house had just been built. It was sparkling clean. It's made life different. It really has. The homes are so easy to maintain. Where we're living, it's been designed so maintaining them on the inside as far as keeping them clean and things like that is quite simple. We don't cut grass. We don't shovel snow. We don't trim bushes. We don't sweep the patio. We don't maintain a house. Maintenance has been absolutely spectacular. Every time we call, they're there and we don't call them that much because the homes are in excellent condition."

Herman said at Otterbein, he and his wife can focus on living.

"I just don't have any regrets. I've said so many times, 'What would have happened if we weren't here?' We've just been different people," he said. "The worries – there's no worries!"

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