Alysza B. Van Til

Vinecrest Senior Apartments, Windsor

Alysza B. Van Til is a bubbly and friendly resident of Vinecrest Senior Apartments who is in her late 70s. She has lived there for four years. Before moving to Windsor, Alyzsa lived in Crescent City, a long distance away from her family in Sonoma County and the East Bay. The apartment she could afford there was old and thin walled. “You had to listen to everything,” says Alysza. Alysza retired from her second career as a minister about five years ago, and before that she was “one of the few female high school teachers in the 1950s.” When asked how affordable housing changed her life, Alyzsa responded: “This place is so beautiful. I get to visit my family more, and see my niece in Petaluma for holidays.” Alysza also participates in many of the services offered at Burbank Housing. She is taking a memoir class where she is recounting her childhood and youth years. “At the age of three I was in the Netherlands when Hitler invaded Poland and my family had to leave Europe. Dad was getting a doctor’s degree. I was the only one who did not get sea sick,” she mentioned with a chuckle. “I feel very blessed and inspired by the beauty, the trees and the garden here. I can walk around. I love where I live.” Alysza also knits prayer shawls in her spare time and has made over 1,000 shawls in the last ten years. “Everyone at Vinecrest has one with the exception of the new residents,” she says.

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