I attended Sarasota High School for two years.  My senior year, I studied in Gstaad, Switzerland.  It was a fabulous year, beginning with a trans-Atlantic voyage on the Queen Elizabeth.  There were 50 girls and 150 boys all from high schools going to schools in England or Switzerland.  We were all in Tourist Class… what a trip!

College included a variety of locations as did my early education.  I attended Bennett College, Indiana University and continued studies at Northwestern University.

I taught third grade for ten years.  Once again, my love for adventure guided me to a variety of places.  I taught in West Lafayette, Indiana, Germany and Wellesley, Massachusetts.

In 1971, I was briefly married.  In 1974, I married again.  I have been a widow since 1991.  I have no children.

During my “youth”, I sailed, golfed, played tennis and skied, among other activities.  However, that has all changed since my shoulders were injured having hired a personal trainer to prevent me from getting injured!  Nevertheless, I continue to keep very busy with P.E.O., B.S.F., CBS, DAR, genealogy, assisting in Sunday school, Awana, lunching with friends, Bridge (for fun) and cultural day trips with friends.

I still like to “globe trot”.  In 2009, my travels took me from pole to pole, from penguins to polar bears in five months! (far too much travel for such a short period).  I went on an epic expedition to 90 degrees North, a.k.a. “The North Pole”.  I traveled on a chartered Russian nuclear powered ice breaker.  It was an unbelievable trip.  I saw polar bears feasting on an unfortunate seal, walrus with enormous tusks, unusual birds and indescribable beauty in addition to watching the ice break all around the ship.  There was even a 20 passenger helicopter aboard to ferry us to land and give us a bird’s eye view along the way.  It was mesmerizing.  Suffice to say, it has been all downhill since my sojourn at the very top of the world, where we disembarked for the day, had a picnic, walked around, made snow angels… some took the polar plunge… not I.  Much too frigid!

I end 2009 with an adventure to Pasadena, California.  I spent three days there over New Year’s attending parties, the parade and the Rose Bowl game.  This year I continued my travels.  In July I traveled to Iceland and Greenland.  In October I plan to go to Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal.

In 1991, I moved full time to Coronado, California.  In 1998, my brother, and only sibling, died of a sudden heart attack. My mother was dealing with age-related Macular Degeneration so I invited her to live with me, which she did until shee passed away in 2003, age 97.  So, I am also familiar with being a caregiver for 5-6 years.

I am now the last surviving member of my family.  It is just God and me.  We make a great team.  However, I never dreamed that I would end up as sole survivor of my family.  But, here I am.  As my mother said just before she died, “The show must go on.  The show must go on”… and so it does!