Mindi Morin
I
n her autobiography, the novelist Edith Wharton wrote rapturously of the Berkshires, “that loveliest region,” and described The Mount, her Lenox country estate built in 1902, as “my first real home.” Mindi Morin can now say the same thing. She bought a house just five minutes from Lenox village center in 2017. It’s heaven, her first home after a couple decades spent moving every few years. A native of Nova Scotia, Morin was raised by parents who ran B&Bs in lovely landscapes. Morin, too, would eventually pursue a career in hospitality. At Fairmont Hotels properties in San Francisco; Vancouver, B.C.; Jasper, Alberta; Pittsburgh; and Washington, D.C., her task was to make people feel at home. But by 2016, she and her husband, Max Scherff, a Minnesota native also in the hospitality business, were ready to turn their efforts into creating their own home. Canyon Ranch, the luxurious wellness resort, obliged her cravings, offering her a dream job as general manager of its sprawling Lenox facility.
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Morin remembers her first full day in the Berkshires. “We fell in love with it,” she said. That very same day, she and Scherff, who would eventually become vice president of hospitality operations for Mill Town Capital, happened to drive down a residential road that would delight them. The following year, they bought their home on the very same road, signing the contract for it at the Locker Room Sports Pub in Lee. They share the house now with five cats and two German shepherds. “I have to stop going to the Berkshire Humane Society,” Morin joked. One of the things she appreciates most about her new Berkshire life is when friends and colleagues notice she’s stressed out. Her
life revolves around wellness after all. “You’re going to ride today, right?” they will say to her, a verbal elbow encouraging her to take some time to go to her favorite rendezvous: the horse stables at White Horse Hill in West Stockbridge. “I ride five days a week,” Morin said. “You could have the worst day ever, and then you have to be so present on a horse. You can’t be on your phone. You can’t not be paying attention.” On a recent Saturday, she led the way to her horse, Zadkine (she calls him “Z”). He’s a Dutch warmblood. From his stall, Z reaches with his mouth for the lead rope in Morin’s hand and gives it a tug. He’s ready. So is she.