I have struggled with how to capture 72 years in a few paragraphs. My life was complicated, all our lives are complicated, so here is my solution: four chapters.
Chapter One, Innocence to Grief. My parents were married in Reims, France, after World War II. I was a speck in my mother when they returned to the US. I grew up in the outskirts of Ann Arbor Michigan, starting at a one room school a la Laura Ingalls Wilder, and then moving to an ultra-luxurious laboratory school run by the University of Michigan. I loved mud. I loved snow, I loved lying on the grass and watching the sky. I loved the freedom of living without fences and always having puppies and kittens around. I hate worms and snakes.
We moved into Ann Arbor proper when I was 12. I now had a full city to explore, and I could walk to school. Everyone’s father was working on a PhD and as soon as they finished, they would move into town or to another college town. My mother died in the Spring of that year, and I don’t remember much about junior high.
Chapter Two: Teens to Texas. My big accomplishment as a teenager was being the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. I went to Michigan State University because I had spent most of my life on the University of Michigan campus. I loved college and met Lew in my junior year. Lew’s sister, Cathie, introduced us. We were married in 1970 and had our son, Philip in 1976. I had been a high school English teacher. I liked the kids, but I was bored by the repetition. Every year Juliet died. Every year. So I wanted to change. I earned a graduate degree in Guidance and Counseling, and then one in Educational Administration. What I really liked about this time was motherhood. I stayed home for three of the best years of my life.
Chapter Three: Texas to the World. We moved to Plano, Texas, which is pretty much like it sounds, but it was not nearly as bad as I had expected. I packed a gallon of olive oil in the car because I was sure I was going to rattlesnakes and the Confederacy. The best part of this move was a chance to do something different. I got a corporate job. I remember when the admin showed me the supply closet and asked if I was happy with the selection of pens, or should she order something different. Wow! I started by creating computer-based training, primarily for telecommunications specialists. It was a big learning curve. I like a big learning curve. I moved onto developing curricula for programmers moving into a variety of technologies, like artificial intelligence. Then I got my chance as a project manager working overseas. I started in Belgium. General Motors Europe wanted to get all of their dealerships to handle warranty the same way. I handled that, and then moved onto British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and NEC, who were building a hot shot, top-secret network. A year later, and I was in Hong Kong, and then Jakarta, and then Australia.
Chapter Four: A Big Mistake and a Wonderful Solution. We moved back to Texas for a job I ended up hating. It was bureaucratic and dull. We were both ready to give it up. Then we realized that we could retire. But where? Lew’s favorite place was Caracas and mine was Jakarta. Normal people do not like these cities, but we loved their energy, their happiness, their music and their color. A friend gushed about San Miguel, so we took a trip to Mexico. We did not warm to San Miguel, but we fell in love with Ajijic. We bought a house our first week here, in 2004. We still live in that house. We went back to retire, and moved here on our 35th wedding anniversary, April 4, 2005. Actually, we spent the night in dazzling downtown Laredo, with three cats, but we found a steak house that served wine. We started playing Bridge, and Barbara Lauer asked me to help form a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. That seems to have worked out pretty well. Philip is a filmmaker, and he married an amazing woman, Ruth. We have visited them in Los Angeles, Tanzania, and then three times in Sweden. They now live in New Orleans, where Ruth is on the faculty at Tulane. We are never moving again.
July 2020