Sarah James

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Sarah James, Age 81

PHSC Participant Since February, 2013

Ms. James grew up in Mebane, North Carolina on the same property where she continues to reside with her husband. She has two children (a daughter and a son) who live nearby. She worked in manufacturing and also cared for her children at home, spending a lot of time painting and in her garden where she loved to grow flowers. According to her family members, she also loved to shop and she has attended the Southern Home & Garden show in Charlotte with daughter Elaine every year since Elaine was a toddler. She has also been very active in her church- Haw Field Presbyterian Church- for most of her life.

Julia Hester

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PHSC Participant Since June 2012

Ms. Hester was born and raised in Prospect Hill in Caswell County, North Carolina. Her parents were farmers and she helped out on the farm while growing up. She eventually moved to a home in Pleasant Grove where she currently resides with her daughter, one of her four children. She was married for over 60 years, but lost her husband to cancer in 1999. Ms. Hester used to love to attend church and she sang in the church choir for many years. She attends the PHSC Center a couple of days a week where she enjoys arts and crafts activities and socializing with other PHSC
participants.

Wayne Hester

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PHSC Participant Since March 2010

Mr. Hester was born in Caswell County and raised in Alamance County, North Carolina. He worked in Food Service and Child Nutrition in the Alamance County School system for 25 years and reports that he “loved his job”. He has stated that he not only loved to work, but also felt as if the job kept him deeply rooted to the community. He used to do a lot of gardening- growing flowers and vegetables in particular.
He lives independently in the community with support from family members and he is an avid University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill fan. He remembers attending a UNC basketball game as a child and is hopeful that he might have an opportunity to attend a UNC basketball game at the Dean E. Smith Center at some point in the future.

Frank Talarico

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PHSC Participant Since February 2012
Mr. Talarico was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He has one son with whom he
currently resides in Graham, North Carolina. He has spent a lot of his life working odd jobs and traveling around the world, often recalling his travels to Europe and China where he walked along the Great Wall of China.
He is a talented poet and sculptor, a sculpture he created of baseball legend Ted Williams still on display at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
When reminiscing about his life, Mr. Talarico stated that he “has loved everything in his life”. He went on to say that “life is like a sandwich in many ways. You are born and then you die and everything in between is for the feasting.” He also noted that “if you live long enough, life becomes like a stew- a mixture of the joy, the pain, the successes, the hardships, the happiness… all of them are worth remembering and shape who you are. When the stew becomes cloudy and you can no longer remember all of the ingredients, it is easy to get lost and this is not really a good place to be”.

Mary Ruth Gant and Lenora Robinson

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Mary Ruth Gant, Age 90 and Lenora Robinson, Age 89

PHSC Participants Since January 2009 and December 2008, respectively

Ms. Gant and Ms. Robinson are sisters and they have always been very close. They joined the PHSC program within a month of one another and they both enjoy their time at the PHSC Center. They continue to reside in close proximity to one another and live independently in the community with support from family members, including Ms. Robinson’s daughter and Ms. Gant’s niece “Baby”. “You could never find anyone closer than these two sisters” says Baby. “They have been this close from the day they were born”.