Real Stories
Real people with real stories. Each month we spotlight a resident in The Carefree Chatter. See how Carefree Senior Living has positively impacted their lives.
Featured Story
Meet Betty
Betty is so happy to be at Carefree Natomas, where she has been a resident since 2010. She loves serving in the kitchen with all the other volunteers. Friday night Happy Hours, Bridge and Shanghai are some her favorite events.
Hear What Our Residents Say
Stories From Our Residents
Betty Wilson
Betty is so happy to be at Carefree Natomas, where she has been a resident since 2010. Betty loves
serving in the kitchen with all the other volunteers. Friday night Happy Hours, Bridge and Shanghai
are some her favorite events. Most days, she can be fo
und outside gardening in her “yard”. She
cherishes family, and has four children, sixteen grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Betty is a
fixture at Carefree and always welcomes visitors for coffee.
Dr. Alta & Bennie Reagans
Bennie is originally from Oklahoma. Dr. Alta is originally from Marion, Indiana. They met
in 1982, and were married in 1985 in San Francisco. They moved to Carefree in 2016 from El Sobrante.
Bennie is retired from the US Postal services after 30 years. Dr. Alta is retired from SDMA Law Firm as a Senior Deposition Writer. She now writes educational programs for a Private School. Bennie loves volunteering in the kitchen at the clubhouse. Mrs. Bennie, as she is so often called, volunteers on Wednesday as the Bingo Caller, which she loves. They both are part of the Social Distance Walking Club. The Reagans have 4 children, and 10 grandchildren. The Reagans have traveled the high seas with 28 Cruises under their belts, their favorite cruise is the Smooth Jazz Cruise.
They love Smooth Jazz Music, and spending time with their grandchildren. They also enjoy having their family and friends over for dinner and dancing. Bennie loves to dance and every chance he gets, he dances. Alta
loves to sit and watch him Cut the Floor Up. Bennie and Alta love living at Carefree, where they have met some amazing people,
and have made amazing friendships living here.
Joan Lazar
Joan became a resident of Carefree in 2020 and has a rich background in several areas. For instance, she is both a scientist and a reading specialist. She began her professional career as a doctoral candidate in chemistry at Yale University but eventually felt a calling to nonprofit work and research that centered on struggling readers.
Drawing on her background in science, she, together with co-author Christine Vogel, created two highly effective literacy nonprofit organizations in Newark, New Jersey: Reading Naturally, a teacher and tutor training organization, and The Newark Literacy Campaign, a citywide reading tutorial service for people of all ages.
Joan Lazar has received the Outstanding Nonprofit Leader award twice from The Prudential Foundation, as well as the Literacy Advocate of Newark New Jersey award from the United Way of Essex County.
Joan is the co-author of NOW I GET IT! Teaching Struggling Readers to Make Sense of What They Read. Scholastic, 2010. She is working on a second book to help inexperienced readers understand more of what they read.
Juanice Belcastro and Patti Vissat
Juanice Belcastro has been a resident at Carefree since 2015. She was born in Yreka, California, and grew up in Little Shasta. In 2020 she turned 100 years old.
Playing baseball, reading, playing the piano and singing were some of the things she enjoyed doing growing up. She worked as a telephone operator before getting married.
Juanice is an only child and wanted any child she had to have siblings to share life with, so Juanice had three sons and three daughters. To date she has six children, eigtheen grandchildren, thirty great grandchildren, and eleven great-great grandchildren… but whose counting!
Juanice’s husband, Mike, served in the army and they were in Indiana and Texas. Once out of the army, they moved to San Francisco where they had a grocery store. After selling the store, they bought a dairy ranch and moved back to Weed, CA., selling the milk to the Medo-Bel Creamery that Mike’s brothers owned and operated. The only thing Juanice wouldn’t do was milk cows.
For many years, Juanice was President of the Women’s American Legion Auxiliary and organized rummage sales, annual county-wide essay contest about American History in the schools and participated in the Memorial Day services at the cemetery alongside the American Legion members, and much more.
Juanice enjoys coming to the Clubhouse every day to see everyone, participating in the breakfasts, lunches, Bingo, and Happy Hour/dancing. Juanice still dances and plays the piano at home, and sings happy birthday & plays the piano for all her family on their special day.
Her secret to a long life…keep moving, take each day as it comes and have fun!
Nolean Harp
Nolean was born in North Carolina, but moved to New York City when she was 5 weeks old. She and her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was 2 years old, and she remained a Brooklyn resident until July of 2011, when she moved to Las Vegas and Carefree.
Nolean has 4 sons, 10 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. Her sister lives here in Summerlin, and she has 1 brother in New Jersey.
Nolean graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BS) and a Master of Science (MS) degree in Special Education from Brooklyn College, and was a pre-school special education teacher (teaching children diagnosed with Autism, ADD, HD, ADHD and delayed cognitive development), until she retired after 35 years of teaching.
Nolean enjoys reading, traveling, going to the theater, dancing, listening to music, and just having fun. Since moving to Carefree, Nolean has become one of our volunteers in the office, and has also volunteered with the Nevada Make-A-Wish foundation as one of its wish givers.
Nolean says she is very happy living here at Carefree, and is glad she made the move here.
Pat and Laura Santiago
Pat and Laura both grew up in central California. Laura is from Tulare, California and Pat is from Farmersville, California. They only lived 12 miles apart from each other, but did not meet until they were in their early twenties. Pat and Laura met while out dancing in June 1973. They enjoyed each other’s company so much and found they had a lot in common.
Pat and Laura were married in May of 1974 while Pat was home on military leave. One week after their wedding, Pat had to report for duty to Southern European Task Force in Vicenza, Italy. Laura joined him a few months later and they spent three wonderful years in Northern Italy.
Pat worked as a farm laborer, a carpenter, during his time in the U.S. Army, worked in a chemical plant, was a barber, and worked in a circuit board factory. His final job, from which he retired, was for the Fresno County Sheriff Department as a Correctional Officer.
Laura always liked office work. She was employed for Fresno Community Medical Centers. She worked her way up through several positions and then retired as Supervisor of Patient Accounting Services.
Pat and Laura both enjoy music, dancing, karaoke and working on craft projects.
They have two children, Beatrice and Carlos.
In 2013, they sold their home, downsized and moved to an over 55 community in Fresno, California. They were happy there but needed something more. They visited several places then they saw the video on Carefree in Las Vegas. They came for a tour and were very impressed with the Carefree lifestyle.
Pat and Laura moved to Carefree in September of 2018. They love the Carefree life, meeting new friends, the activities and especially the Friday night parties. They are so happy here at Carefree.
Betty Wilson
Betty is so happy to be at Carefree Natomas, where she has been a resident since 2010. Betty loves serving in the kitchen with all the other volunteers. Friday night Happy Hours, Bridge and Shanghai are some her favorite events. Most days, she can be found outside gardening in her “yard”. She cherishes family, and has four children, sixteen grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Betty is a fixture at Carefree and always welcomes visitors for coffee.
Dr. Alta & Bennie Reagans
Bennie is originally from Oklahoma. Dr. Alta is originally from Marion, Indiana. They met in 1982, and were married in 1985 in San Francisco. They moved to Carefree in 2016 from El Sobrante.
Bennie is retired from the US Postal services after 30 years. Dr. Alta is retired from SDMA Law Firm as a Senior Deposition Writer. She now writes educational programs for a Private School.
Bennie loves volunteering in the kitchen at the clubhouse. Mrs. Bennie, as she is so often called, volunteers on Wednesday as the Bingo Caller, which she loves. They both are part of the Social Distance Walking Club.
The Reagans have 4 children, and 10 grandchildren.
The Reagans have traveled the high seas with 28 Cruises under their belts, they’re favorite cruise is the Smooth Jazz Cruise.
They love Smooth Jazz Music, and spending time with their grandchildren. They also enjoy having their family and friends over for dinner and dancing. Bennie loves to dance and every chance he gets, he dances. Alta loves to sit and watch him Cut-The-Floor Up.
Bennie and Alta love living at Carefree, where they have met some amazing people, and have made amazing friendships living here.
Joan Lazar
Joan became a resident of Carefree in 2020 and has a rich background in several areas. For instance, she is both a scientist and a reading specialist. She began her professional career as a doctoral candidate in chemistry at Yale University but eventually felt a calling to nonprofit work and research that centered on struggling readers.
Drawing on her background in science, she, together with co-author Christine Vogel, created two highly effective literacy nonprofit organizations in Newark, New Jersey: Reading Naturally, a teacher and tutor training organization, and The Newark Literacy Campaign, a citywide reading tutorial service for people of all ages.
Joan Lazar has received the Outstanding Nonprofit Leader award twice from The Prudential Foundation, as well as the Literacy Advocate of Newark New Jersey award from the United Way of Essex County.
Joan is the co-author of NOW I GET IT! Teaching Struggling Readers to Make Sense of What They Read. Scholastic, 2010. She is working on a second book to help inexperienced readers understand more of what they read.
Juanice Belcastro and Patti Vissat
Juanice Belcastro has been a resident at Carefree since 2015. She was born in Yreka, California, and grew up in Little Shasta. In 2020 she turned 100 years old.
Playing baseball, reading, playing the piano and singing were some of the things she enjoyed doing growing up. She worked as a telephone operator before getting married.
Juanice is an only child and wanted any child she had to have siblings to share life with, so Juanice had three sons and three daughters. To date she has six children, eigtheen grandchildren, thirty great grandchildren, and eleven great-great grandchildren… but whose counting!
Juanice’s husband, Mike, served in the army and they were in Indiana and Texas. Once out of the army, they moved to San Francisco where they had a grocery store. After selling the store, they bought a dairy ranch and moved back to Weed, CA., selling the milk to the Medo-Bel Creamery that Mike’s brothers owned and operated. The only thing Juanice wouldn’t do was milk cows.
For many years, Juanice was President of the Women’s American Legion Auxiliary and organized rummage sales, annual county-wide essay contest about American History in the schools and participated in the Memorial Day services at the cemetery alongside the American Legion members, and much more.
Juanice enjoys coming to the Clubhouse every day to see everyone, participating in the breakfasts, lunches, Bingo, and Happy Hour/dancing. Juanice still dances and plays the piano at home, and sings happy birthday & plays the piano for all her family on their special day.
Her secret to a long life…keep moving, take each day as it comes and have fun!
Nolean Harp
Nolean was born in North Carolina, but moved to New York City when she was 5 weeks old. She and her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was 2 years old, and she remained a Brooklyn resident until July of 2011, when she moved to Las Vegas and Carefree.
Nolean has 4 sons, 10 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. Her sister lives here in Summerlin, and she has 1 brother in New Jersey.
Nolean graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BS) and a Master of Science (MS) degree in Special Education from Brooklyn College, and was a pre-school special education teacher (teaching children diagnosed with Autism, ADD, HD, ADHD and delayed cognitive development), until she retired after 35 years of teaching.
Nolean enjoys reading, traveling, going to the theater, dancing, listening to music, and just having fun. Since moving to Carefree, Nolean has become one of our volunteers in the office, and has also volunteered with the Nevada Make-A-Wish foundation as one of its wish givers.
Nolean says she is very happy living here at Carefree, and is glad she made the move here.
Pat and Laura Santiago
Pat and Laura both grew up in central California. Laura is from Tulare, California and Pat is from Farmersville, California. They only lived 12 miles apart from each other, but did not meet until they were in their early twenties. Pat and Laura met while out dancing in June 1973. They enjoyed each other’s company so much and found they had a lot in common.
Pat and Laura were married in May of 1974 while Pat was home on military leave. One week after their wedding, Pat had to report for duty to Southern European Task Force in Vicenza, Italy. Laura joined him a few months later and they spent three wonderful years in Northern Italy.
Pat worked as a farm laborer, a carpenter, during his time in the U.S. Army, worked in a chemical plant, was a barber, and worked in a circuit board factory. His final job, from which he retired, was for the Fresno County Sheriff Department as a Correctional Officer.
Laura always liked office work. She was employed for Fresno Community Medical Centers. She worked her way up through several positions and then retired as Supervisor of Patient Accounting Services.
Pat and Laura both enjoy music, dancing, karaoke and working on craft projects.
They have two children, Beatrice and Carlos.
In 2013, they sold their home, downsized and moved to an over 55 community in Fresno, California. They were happy there but needed something more. They visited several places then they saw the video on Carefree in Las Vegas. They came for a tour and were very impressed with the Carefree lifestyle.
Pat and Laura moved to Carefree in September of 2018. They love the Carefree life, meeting new friends, the activities and especially the Friday night parties. They are so happy here at Carefree.
