First of all, I am thankful that I was reared in U.City in the ‘Fabulous Fifties’ because that net of safety, community and lovely family life shaped the foundation of my adulthood. I have to thank my parents for the moral code, fun, religiosity and love they gave my brothers and me to sustain us on this wonderful journey. I never planned to leave St. Louis but now when I do return, I visit old friends and my two delicious brothers.

Fifty-six years ago I married Dick Marchick when he was a medical student at WU and I was teaching at Spoede School while finishing a master’s degree at the same time. Three children later we were in Berkeley, California.

When my oldest was about 10, I went back to work part-time as a reading specialist and it turned out that all the students sent to me could not read nor could they speak English. I went to the University of CA, Berkeley to get credentialed in English as a Second Language, which was a new program. Then, I taught part-time at UC Berkeley and part-time at a local school district where I eventually directed the program, and got four Fulbright Fellowships. Dick & I lived overseas twice during this time.  The second time produced the book, “Shalom in My Heart, Salaam on My Lips” which I recommend to all!! After retiring, I taught at a community college until I was 70.

We now have two daughters living here and a son in Washington, DC.  We have six grandchildren ranging from autistic to summa cum laude.  We adore these kids and each gives us a different kind of joy. We still drive car pools, hike, play duplicate bridge, docent at a museum, participate in a monthly book club, enjoy opera and theatre, and travel.  We have been politically active; we went to the Obama inauguration and bought airline tickets for Hillary’s.  Dick was too sad to use his ticket so I used mine to go to the Woman’s March and marched with the DC family and a daughter who surprised me by appearing in time to march.

In March I met Lois Glick Guller, Joyce Weinstein Meltzer and Phyllis Katzen Heifetz in Scottsdale for spring training. We never stopped laughing.  We saw Carol Feldman Warshaw while there.  Good friends with a common history are the best.

It has been a good life, but not long enough.  Hopefully, our final years will be fulfilling and our brains won’t leave before our bodies do.