Greetings! 

Sure wish I could be at the reunion but my mother's 90th birthday is the same weekend. I am attaching a photo of mom -- only because she has been such a role model for me and such a rock in my life, and I am so proud of her!

After graduating from Georgetown, I started working for Bristol Myers and was transferred to HQ in NYC in the first year. I took advantage of their tuition reimbursement program and got my MBA at night at Fordham University. Charles Of the Ritz, home to YSL and Bain de Soleil, recruited me and my dream to work for an international cosmetics company was a reality. Then my boss introduced me to this handsome Wall Streeter, and my priorities somehow changed. He was offered a job with EF Hutton in Tampa, FL, and wanted me to go with him. I answered an ad in the WSJ for a merchandising job with Eckerd, and followed him to FL...after first getting married in NYC.

When his health went sour, we put my career on the front burner. I worked for a number of specialty retail companies that were in the process of being bought or sold that needed someone with my background and flexibility. We made an ungodly number of moves in 10 years, including Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Columbus, but I got to travel to London, Sorrento, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen on business. Columbus, however, was the final straw. My husband said he was only going to make one more move. I quit the corporate world and now work for him doing financial research. The final move we made was to Vero Beach, FL where we now live.

I attribute our 30 years of marriage to determination. That same trait has energized me through finishing 9 marathons, including NY, Marine Corps, San Francisco and the Rome marathons. I am training for marathon #10, the Disney Marathon, which will be in January.

I'm happy to say that Mary Cromer and I got reconnected when she discovered that we were both living in northern California. It seemed like our friendship didn't miss a beat even though we had lost touch with each other for more than 25 years.