One of the main questions we are asked at Lifestyle Magazine is where we find all of the beautiful and interesting homes that we feature. From gorgeous exteriors, living rooms, dining areas both inside and out, pools and landscapes, our readers want to know how these inspiring homes end up on our pages.
That’s a legitimate question considering that we are approaching our 17th year this fall. To answer, most of our homes are sent our way by referral. Someone has a friend who knows someone that was at someone’s home that they think would be a beautiful fit for Lifestyle Magazine. We have also knocked on doors, and occasionally someone reaches out to us about their own home.
This month’s home tour was none of the above, but came our way after a health scare sent me to a doctor to be checked out, “just in case.” Turns out that it was just the stress of the pandemic, the uncertainty of running a business during an economic shutdown, worries about the health and safety of my family and staff, too much coffee and a variety of other reasons someone feels that they might be having a heart attack. Hence, my visit to the offices of Dr. Ashok Verma and his wife, physician’s assistant Minu Verma, who, after making sure that my health was priority one, had a minute to chat about their beautiful and contemporary home. I would not recommend this as a way to track down a lead, but in this case, it turned out very well for all of us. I thank the Vermas for the outstanding care I received and for allowing Lifestyle Magazine to invade their home on a hot summer day. Their story, appropriately entitled “Calming and Contemporary,” is found on page 24.
As our world has literally shrunk due to the shutdowns, many locals have postponed out-of-state and out-of-country travel. Lifestyle Magazine travel contributor Cheryl Levitan doesn’t let anything like a pandemic keep her down. With a paradigm shift in her thinking, Cheryl decided to start exploring potentially interesting places that she walked or drove by every day. We love the way she thinks and urge you to explore “Trekking Again … Close to Home” on page 38.
While on the topic of shrinking, we too have felt the elimination of our Happenings section as nonprofits and other large sponsors have had to cancel their annual events. Not only have we missed attending these events, but we also miss giving these groups announcement opportunities in our magazine. We would love to bring this back, and if you are making a shift from in-person attendance to virtual events or fundraisers, please send your information to us and we will do our best to get that information included in Happenings.
Know that like many of you, we’ve made adjustments in our work schedules and getting used to working remotely and at virtual meetings, but are happy to report that our staff has remained safe and healthy, and our heartfelt wish is that it is the same for you.
