Self-described trailblazer helps people with disabilities - Frederick News-Post

Photo by Sam Yu

Janet Lucia is the HUD property manager for Community Living. Here, shes in one of the 26 homes she manages that was recently updated with energy-efficient kitchen appliances.

New Market resident Janet Lucia describes herself as a trailblazer.

As a 19-year-old in the early 1970s, Lucia moved from her hometown of Cheesequake, N.J., to the Ozark Mountains in northwestern Arkansas.

She moved there with her husband to form a community with two other couples, said Lucia, 57. The community was part of a movement that was popular in the early 1970s known as the back to the land generation. The movement rejected the pursuit of wealth in favor of living off the land, she said.

"We went into the woods and started from scratch," Lucia said. "We lived in tents until we had cabins."

Their property, which the group owned, was two miles from the nearest paved road, Lucia said. Lucia and her friends lived off their gardens and their small animals.

"We raised chickens, turkeys and goats," Lucia said. "We grew potatoes and green beans."

Lucia occasionally worked as a waitress, but to do this, she had to drive 45 miles to the nearest city -- Fort Smith, Ark., she said.

The alternative lifestyle in the mountains, which lasted for about 15 years, was not the only trail Lucia has blazed. As a widow in 1998, she ventured into online dating and met Joseph Lucia. They have been happily married for a decade.

"We were trailblazers," Lucia said. "The online thing was new then. People were horrified to hear we met online."

Lucia said she moved to Frederick County to be with her husband, who is a local engineer.

Lucia is an administrator for Community Living Inc., which serves people with disabilities. The nonprofit group has 26 homes in the city of Frederick, Lucia said. The homes are residences for people with disabilities. Lucia manages the houses. Her work is similar to what she did as a nursing home administrator in Bella Vista, Ark., she said.

"It's a pretty close service to the elderly."

Lucia said she moved to Bella Vista in the late 1980s, after she decided to leave the commune.

A baby prompted the move, she said.

"I had a baby. I had to get serious."

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