GOOD NEIGHBORS: THE ROMANOS
All In Oak Run couple Damian and Audrey Romano have left their fingerprints on just about every organization and event in their community. BY JOANN GUIDRY • PHOTO BY STEVE FLOETHE
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ome people just know how to live and enjoy life. And the best of them also know how to share their joie de vivre. Say hello to Damian and Audrey Romano. Visit their Oak Run home and Damian is going to give you an immediate welcome hug because, well, as he says, he’s Italian. And that hug is indicative of how the Romanos, who retired to Oak Run in 1999, have embraced their community. In the past 20 years, the Romanos are responsible for a whole slew of firsts in Oak Run, many that continue to this day. Separately or together, they established the first Super Bowl party, the first Red Hats chapter, the first Fourth of July and Christmas golf cart parades, as well
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as the first thespian club. The couple also helps locate military veterans for the Oak Run chapter of the Quilt of Valor Foundation to honor. Damian founded the Romeos, a group of men who socialize without their wives. Numbering 17 to 20, including several widows, the Romeos go out monthly for breakfast or lunch, sometimes both. They also venture out on excursions from touring horse farms to attending College of Central Florida softball games. Audrey is a member of the Ambassadors Club, which organizes entertainment, including monthly dances, as well as white elephant sales to raise money for charities. Damian often lends his DJ tal-
OCALA’S GOOD LIFE retirement redefined
ents to the dances while serving as master of ceremonies at other events. And most near and dear to the couple’s hearts is Hospice of Marion County’s Legacy House. In addition to Audrey volunteering at the facility, they organize the annual Hoofin’ It For Hospice, a dance and walk to raise money for Legacy House. “We’ve always been very active people. We lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 40 years and it was a busy, nonstop social life,” says Damian, 83. “When we moved to Ocala, it was like going from 100 miles an hour to five miles an hour. That just didn’t suit us at all and we decided to do something about it.” Audrey, 81, agrees, “We just couldn’t
