It is humbling to reminisce back over 50 years and realize what a blessed life I have lived! The first four years after graduation were spent at SUNY  Fredonia, in the far western part of New York State.  I left there with a BS in Music Education.. and wedding plans. Having met while I was a freshman at Fredonia, Don and I were married on Staten Island in July of 1962. He was from the Buffalo area and we chose to spend our careers teaching music in public schools south of there. With time off to raise two sons and a daughter (Don Jr. 1963, Ron 1965 and Bonnie Jean 1968), I taught elementary classroom music for 24 years. I loved every day of it! During that time I also taught private piano lessons (until 1981) and, from 1965 until 2004, was a church organist and choir director. Our lives revolved around music as Don was the High School Band Director (and later a Principal for 10 years.) In the summers his Marching Band, which included our own 3 for many years, performed in parades and field shows throughout NY and Pa.  Naturally, I was an active Band Booster.

We both retired from the public schools  in 1996 but continued with our church work.  We also travelled in our RV as much as possible and have  now been in all 50 states. The state of Hawaii, where our oldest son and 6 of our 10 grandchildren now live, of course required us to fly. In 2005 we RV’d throughout New Zealand and Australia in a rental unit and have also been to Mexico, Canada, Austria and Germany. We love to travel.

Our life together took a shift in October of 2005 when we volunteered to manage a church facility in Slidell, Louisiana organized to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina. During that time we sold our home in Cuba, New York and, after five months, made plans to move to Florida.

We are now living  in The Villages in central Florida.  We are “grandparents” at a local elementary school, I teach English as a Second Language to adults and we do local disaster cleanup missions with a church team.  For me, recreation includes riding my bicycle, playing golf and bocce, yoga, line dancing (I never thought I’d want to do that!), and being a member of the Dulcimer Club. I am also a member of our Church Council in charge of Mission and Outreach activities.  Our son Ron and his family aren’t far away in Tampa and our daughter Bonnie Jean continues to live in New York State with her husband and two children. We visit them as often as we can get away.

I believe we are in the group that says “I am busier now than I was before I retired”.  I am deeply thankful for that and wouldn’t want it any other way. Yes, my life is a very happy and blessed one.