Bill and Vera Sisolak are deeply involved in the Capitol Hill community, and almost four decades after they first moved here, they achieved something to which most of us aspire – balance with each other, their work, their family, friends and community.

The balance they have created in their lives is reflected in their flow of conversation, in their home and in the happiness that is evident as they laugh together telling stories of their lives.

Bill and Vera met in the late 1960s. Fresh out of college, they both worked for the CIA and attended the same party one Saturday night. Bill explained, “I was an undercover CIA agent and couldn’t tell Vera, who also worked for the CIA, what I did, let alone talk about my work. So, when I said ‘I work for the Army,’ she smiled politely and moved on.”

As fate would have it, both their names ended with “S.” The following Monday morning, they wound up sitting next to each other in a CIA training course.

Neither stayed long with the agency (Bill started his own company, and Vera worked as an economist at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), but they stuck with each other, and almost 40 years later they remain steadfast mutual admirers in the home they first purchased on the Hill 34 years ago.

“We never expected to spend our lives here,” said Vera as she sat comfortably in her great room with a view of a spacious free-flowing garden unusual in a Capitol Hill home.

While waiting for Vera to return from a bike ride, Bill took me on a tour of the garden that is a source of Vera’s joy and an example of her botanical prowess. A life-size copper sculpture of a frog relaxes on a stonewall at the beginning of the garden. “Fred is my alter ego,” Bill said. He smiled. “No, really. He literally is.” He explained. They both were avid fans of Freedom, the DC professional women’s soccer team, and had season tickets. When the team made the playoffs a few years ago, Bill and Vera traveled to Atlanta for the championship games. While there they toured the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and fell in love with the copper sculptures that adorned the gardens. “When we got home, Vera had me sit on the wall with my legs crossed holding a glass. She sent the photo to the sculptor, and he created Fred from my image.”

Even though the Sisolaks never planned to stay on the Hill or in their modest-sized A Street NE house that was on the Capitol Hill House Tour in 2001, they became entrenched in community life. They raised their two sons here: Michael, who now lives in New York and who has given the Sisolaks their first grandchild, Zoie, named after Bill’s grandmother; and Brian, who lives in DC.

Vera, who always was athletic and played on the women’s basketball team at her alma mater University of Massachusetts, coached Soccer on the Hill for 18 years. “I started with the boys team then switched to coaching girls.”

Her love of building and renovating gardens led her in 2004 to complete the master gardener’s course given by the Department of Agriculture. She became a member of the Capitol Hill Garden Club three years ago, and this year, she was elected president.

Not one to squander her newfound talents and knowledge in her own back yard, Vera has been volunteering for the past four years at the Peabody School where her sons attended, developing their garden. Last year when Peabody received a $25,000 grant, Vera got her hands dirty. “I dug dirt and hauled rocks in the heat of the summer. I look forward this year to bringing the children into the garden and teaching the kids how it all works.”

When Vera got wind of a landscape renovation project at the Northeast Library, she spent months making sure the community stayed informed and had input throughout the planning process. “I believe what we ended up with is a better, workable product.”

Bill and Vera are community volunteers who tackle the tough projects. While many may shy away from the often tedious and difficult position of being an ANC commissioner, Bill took on the task while still running his own company and turned it into a rewarding one for him and those he served in ANC 6C07. When he found someone with drive and interest, he was happy to step down and run his protégé’s campaign.

Now that Bill is retired he said he is busier than ever. He volunteers at the Newseum one day a week and loves to get out on the golf course.

Both he and Vera have cemented their commitment to the Capitol Hill community by helping to found and support the Capitol Hill Village, an organization dedicated to keeping residents in their homes as they age. Bill volunteers as a handyman for the organization. When he discovered a city program that provides grants to low-to-moderate income residents in historic preservation districts to renovate their home exteriors, both he and Vera helped a Capitol Hill Village member submit an application to the city.

Bill and Vera love to travel and love to dive. But it wasn’t until last year when Bill sold his computer software company and retired that he was able to take more than a week off for vacations. Last year they took three weeks in Puerto Rico where the diving was not so good. They’ve headed to Bonaire this month – a diver’s paradise 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela – for two weeks of fun in the sun.