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SEPTEMBER 2024 941.312.0665 | 27TH STATE MEDIA, LLC
Landings Resident Profile By Joan Lowery
LRC UPDATE
Morrie Savren: A life well lived!
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SECURITY REPORT
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KIDS CORNER LUNA LABOVIC, 6
I recently spoke with Landings winter resident Morrie Savren, who celebrated his hundredth birthday in July. While he doesn’t attribute reaching this ripe elder age to anything specific, I had a different impression. Based on what I learned about Morrie on this first meeting his attitude and life experiences are consistent with the latest research on longevity. Morrie is a very positive person who expresses a deep respect and appreciation for others, values relationships, and has learned how to manage stress, conflict and grief with skill, grace and resilience. Physical exercise was integral to his daily life and giving back to his community well into his retirement years contributed to his sense of purpose. J: Morrie, how did it feel to turn 100? M: While I have the physical and health afflictions that come with being 100 years old, I’m very lucky that my mind isn’t affected. I’ve managed to keep whatever intellect I’ve had throughout my life and I’m very thankful for that. We had a wonderful birthday celebration in July. J: Is there anything you can attribute to your longevity? M: Yes. I was a smoker in my twenties and mid-thirties but decided to stop when my son was an infant. After that I became a serious
jogger. I ran three to five miles twice a week. I also played tennis and racquetball, regularly. J: Did you follow a certain diet that contributed to your longevity? M: Not really but I ate healthfully. However, throughout my childhood my mother made salami sandwiches for us every day. That’s not exactly healthy but I survived! Weight was never a problem. I really attribute running to helping me reach this age. J: Good relationships have been connected to living long. You have been married to Selma for 75 years. Do you think that has anything to do with it? M: I sure do. I give most of the credit to that because Selma has made living a dream. She made our lives a lot easier than they could have been. I don’t want to sound ‘Pollyanna’ but we really get along so well. We never avoided problems, and we managed them successfully. If we had a difference of opinion, we talked it out – never in anger. If discord started to build, we took a little vacation from the subject and came back to it later. We were always able to work things out. We taught our kids to do that. Both our daughter and son are in very happy marriages. J: Tell me about your family. M: My son is 70 and my daughter is 67. I have three grandchildren, and we were recently blessed with
a great grandson. They are all very happy. I think our approach to communicating and respecting each other rubbed off on them! J: Did your parents or Selma’s parents model your approach to managing potential conflict? M: I’m sure Selma learned it from her parents. They were very wise people. And Selma was always a very intelligent and easygoing person. She’s the smartest person I know! J: How did you and Selma meet? M: We met at a wedding when she was 18 and I was 23. At first there wasn’t anything special going on between us. But when the celebration ended, I was going to drive the newlyweds to their hotel. Selma was waiting in the hallway, so I asked her if she needed a ride. She said she was waiting for her father to pick her up. I offered to drop her off at her home. She called and got her mother’s approval for me to give her a lift. On the way from the hotel to her house, I think I fell in love with her. Six months later we were married!
J: What do you attribute to your successful marriage? M: The fact that we get along so well. We treat each other with respect, and we take each other’s wishes seriously. We converse openly and we’ve always made sure to make things work for both of us. J: Tell me about where you grew up and lived for most of your life. M: I was born on July 10,1924 in Cleveland. I’ve lived there my entire life except for spending winters in Sarasota. I love Cleveland. J: Where do your adult children live? M: My d aug ht e r l ive s i n Washington, DC and my son lives outside of Tel Aviv. They are both Story continues on page 8.
J: You said that Selma was the smartest person that you know. How would you describe her intelligence? M: She’s very smart. She has a great way of presenting herself. She’s easy-going. She recognizes what is important in life. She’s a good communicator. She thinks things through. Selma is a very wise person. Morrie turned 100 in July 2024.
Volunteers who work for you
Heidi Bodor
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LADIES RECIPE CORNER STRAWBERRY CUCUMBER SALAD
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Over the past year or two, we have been highlighting special people in The Landings who give of their time and talent to help our community. This month we profile Heidi Bodor. You may know Heidi as the author/ interviewer for the Eagle Kids Corner or as a homeowner neighbor. But did you know she was born and grew up in Sarasota? Heidi also has longstanding family history in The Landings connecting her to Bertha Palmer who originally owned the property that is now our community. Heidi’s mother came to the U.S. from Germany and moved to Sarasota. She worked for the Palmer family as a live-in employee at their estate in The Landings before it was developed. She met her husband (Heidi’s father) at the Palmers’ in the early 1950’s while on a service call there. Heidi grew up just a mile from The Landings off Camino Real. After attending Phillippi Shores, Brookside, and Riverview, she went to college at the University of Florida and Florida State University where she received two degrees in Multinational Business and Marketing and a minor in German. Upon graduation, she went to Germany for about a year and worked for the photographic film company, AGFA, and backpacked through 18 countries. Soon after moving back to Florida, she took a job with a plastics company
in multinational sales and then a commercial interiors company, which was primarily working on airports and post offices. Given her travel urge, she went back to Europe on vacation and upon her return to Atlanta, met her future husband, Danko, in the airport. They married and lived in Tampa for 10 years before returning to Sarasota after her father-in- law, Landings resident Frank Bodor, had a stroke. Their two children, Eli who is now 24, and Karina, 21, grew up in The Landings, and have fond memories of climbing the banyan trees next to their house, biking the neighborhood, and exploring the nature trail. Heidi’s volunteer involvement with The Landings goes way back. She volunteered with the Father Son Tennis Tournament in the early 1990’s. She has devoted countless hours as a board member and volunteer for The Landings Holiday Charitable Foundation for the last 8 years and has been the author of the monthly column in the Eagle, “Kid’s Corner” since January 2013. She loves interviewing kids and feels like every child is special and should have their time in the limelight to show their talents. She also formerly played tennis on the 3.5 team until sustaining a bad back injury. Heidi also has extensive volunteer experience in the general community. She has fostered cats and kittens
through Animal Services and Nate’s and has volunteered in Buddy’s Feral Cat spay/neuter program. She has been active at her children’s schools and sports teams and served on the PTA and PTO Boards, helped chair numerous events, was a CREW Mom, Home Room Mom, and school office volunteer. She was also a founding member and Co-President of the Pine View Orchestra Boosters. In 2012, together with her husband and a few other chess enthusiasts, they founded and ran Sarasota Scholastic Chess, which hosted quarterly regional chess tournaments at local schools until Covid interrupted the competition schedule. When not fostering cats or caregiving for aging parents, Heidi and her family (who are all rowers) have enjoyed hosting elite rowers who have been coming to Sarasota to train and have gone on to represent the USA in international competitions, including the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. When asked what she would do if she had a magic wand and unlimited resources to improve The Landings, she answers that she would love to see The Landings serve as a model community with more canopied roads and more sustainable landscaping. Her wish is for the community to do more research on ways to improve the environment by using less pesticides and herbicides and landscape more
ecologically. She would love to see a community orchard, a chicken coop, and beehives placed in The Landings to enhance the environment and maybe a juice bar at the racquet club that serves Landings sourced fruit smoothies or margaritas. When asked what she loved best about The Landings, she noted the number of old growth trees, seeing all kinds of wildlife, being near the beautiful bay, and having great mangrove tunnels for kayaking, adding that it’s so nice to have this little neighborhood so close to everything but not feel urban. She likes having the large pool and great tennis courts at the club and she is looking forward to renewing her rollerblading skills on the new roads. Most of all, she appreciates all the wonderful neighbors she has throughout the community. Heidi is one of many volunteers who make The Landings such a great place to live. We thank her for her involvement.