What’s New at Normandie Ridge

Retired Christian Educator Becomes Author

October 25, 2006

While attending the Normandie Ridge Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, October 14, I ran into a very interesting lady.  Her name is Laura R. Hess, and she was selling copies of her new book, Looking Back on the Road Less Traveled. 

The book consists of memories, impressionable events, songs, poems, letters, meditations, and visions that make Laura the person she is today.  She has always been a spiritual person, sought to live as a child of God, encouraging young people and adults to ‘learn to know the God in them.’  The message most emphasized in her book is “the importance of worldwide communion and the remembrance of holy days.”

What interested me the most about Laura was her fourteen year dedication to Normandie Ridge Senior Living Community. This is a place she holds near and dear to her heart since she's seen it built up from the ground into what is has become today.

“I’ve been on the Advisory Board since before the facility was completely built...from the time we met to measure door widths to see what size furniture would fit through," Laura recalls.

After graduating from Mansfield University, Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Home Economics and English and a M.A. degree in Religious Education from Scarritt College in Tennessee, Laura served churches as the Director of Christian Education in several cities from Syracuse, New York all the way down to Miami, Florida. 

In 1948, she began serving the Central Pennsylvania Conference as the Director of Youth Work.  She was also an editor of junior high curriculum materials for the Methodist denomination, supervising the development of a twelve-book curriculum.

From there, Laura decided to retire and develop her own publishing company, Wingborne Diaconal Productions, producing three books and a curriculum for Teaching Others Caregiving over a ten year span.

Laura is originally from Williamsport, Pennsylvania but currently lives in York, Pennsylvania and is a member of the Aldersgate church, the same church that brought her to York in 1978.  She currently holds the title of Christian Educator/Diaconal Minister and has been a member of the National Christian Educators Fellowship from its beginning. 

Looking Back on the Road Less Traveled is being sold for $12 and can be purchased by contacting The Center for Spiritual Formation, Inc. at (717) 240-0678 or by email: formation1@earthlink.net.