Meet the Neighbors at Highlands Green… A Brief Introduction to Peter and Ellen Wood
Peter and Ellen Wood moved to Highland Green in 2003, when they were both still working and in their 50s. They feel that their decision to move to a community like Highland Green and into a home where they wouldn’t have to struggle with stairs in the years to come was an excellent one. They didn’t want to risk waiting until they needed to move and very possibly wouldn’t find exactly what they wanted right away.
These interesting Highland Green residents enjoyed scuba diving for over 20 years and have made over 500 dives throughout the world. Peter is a former healthcare administrator, who worked toward managing costs and improving quality of care for patients. Ellen was a teacher before moving to Maine in 1995 and also worked in airline disaster management during 911. She specialized in technology at the State Library for 15 years and played a vital role in making all maine.gov websites more accessible for people with disabilities. When they enjoy downtime, you might find them reading or spending some quality time with their golden retriever.
When asked what they like most about Highland Green, they were quick to respond with a pretty long list. They both feel that Highland Green and the surrounding area is a beautiful place to live. So beautiful, in fact, that Peter enjoys taking photographs within the community. Then Ellen artfully displays Peter’s photos. Ellen was also recently involved in a project where photography enthusiasts shared their photos of the beautiful surrounding area.
Peter and Ellen make great use of the brightly lighted sidewalks which wind throughout the community and offer a safe and scenic place to walk night or day. And on the day that this writer spoke to them, they were anxious to don their snowshoes for a trek across the lovely golf greens that had been recently covered with snow. Peter also mentioned that he was very appreciative of the fact that the grounds crew takes meticulous care when clearing the sidewalks, as well as plowing the streets and providing landscaping services. Additionally, Peter and Ellen are quite fond of the “incredible location of Highland Green” and the fact that it offers access to so many of the things that they find pleasurable. There is the ocean and its panoramic views to the north, and the local colleges offer lifelong learning opportunities. They also enjoy the fact that there are exercise classes, doggie daycare and even the ever-popular Wild Oats Bakery in Brunswick where they like to pick up sweet treats nearby.
The couple says they have also felt very safe at Highland Green during the pandemic. Everyone at Highland Green is very courteous about maintaining social distance; and they were thrilled with the exceptional way that Maine’s Mid Coast Hospital in nearby Brunswick and its physicians and medical staff expedited vaccinations.
Once life gets back to normal, Peter and Ellen look forward to becoming more social once again, enjoying the pool and other Highland Green offerings that were temporarily placed on hold and traveling to see their grandkids as well as continuing to visit fascinating places across the globe, but don’t let all that fool you. Peter and Ellen have been keeping busy and enjoying life at Highland Green throughout these trying times as well.
Peter has served and/or chaired on the Board for quite a few years and Ellen serves on the Activities Committee and has played an integral part in creating Zoom coffee hours, as well as other enjoyable Zoom events such as a New Year’s Eve “party.”
