Forty years later I am still in IT now as a Quality Assurance Team Lead/Quality Assurance Engineer.  Along the way it’s been 25 years as a developer, a trainer, then a process improvement specialist, development manager and finally into QA.  It is still a learning experience, a challenge and most of the time it's fun.

My partner, Kath, and I have been together for 14 years and this past February celebrated our anniversary by having a civil union in Hawaii (our second home).  I had my son in 1975 and lost him to cancer this past March.  His gifts to me are two wonderful granddaughters (even with them being teenagers now).  It’s forty years and still counting in taking care of Mom.  She is in the last stage of Alzheimer’s now.  As her disease progressed finding positives are a challenge but I can tell you as her short term memory waned we began to save money as the book she read the week before was new to her the next week J.

I left Pittsburgh in the early 90’s for Florida seeking to warm up.  In Tampa I rediscovered golf and have been playing ever since.  Kath and I are vets that belong to the IWVGA (International Women Veterans Golf Assoc.).  We get together once a year for a tournament, this year it is in Jacksonville and it is my excuse for not being able to attend this year’s reunion.  The tournament is Oct 1st – 4th.  In 1999 a job opportunity brought us to our current home in Phoenix.  We traded the humidity and bugs for dry heat and coyotes (and Vegas is within driving distance).

The past forty years have presented many ups and downs but it has not been boring.  I miss Pittsburgh, Mt. Lebanon, from time to time and still take great pride in the Steelers.  I am tried and true black and gold forever (even when they played the Cardinals in the super bowl).

I write poetry from time to time and have attached one I wrote about Pittsburgh (BTW I use Kay Dee as my nom de plume).  I hope everyone enjoys the reunion festivities and each other’s company.  I will continue to check in on Facebook.

Happy Fortieth!