I was born in San Francisco in the late ’40’s when my parents both returned from WWII. My mother was a nurse in Africa and France and my father was stationed in England as a Air Traffic Controller and worked with the RAF. They met in New Jersey before they were shipped out and wrote letters over a 3 year period that they saved. One of the first things I did after retiring was to transcribe all of their letters and self-published a finished book, called “Hello Mine” because that is how they addressed each other. It is 625 pages and hopefully the books will be passed down several generations to come. I went to USF Nursing School from ’65-69 and worked as a nurse for 45 years. I retired from the VA Medical Center in 2014 after working there for 32 years. I was so fortunate to have a profession that I loved. I have been married to my college sweetheart for 55 years, have 4 children and 9 grandchildren. I have a full life and painting has put the frosting on the cake.