I was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 7, 1949. I was adopted a short time later. I have three siblings, also all adopted. I attended Central School, Owosso, St. Paul's, also in Owosso, Morris School in Searcy, Arkansas (8th grade) and Assumption High School, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I graduated from St. Paul High, Owosso, in 1968. 

I moved to California from Detroit in 1970, after the FIRST grape boycott of the United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO, was over, supposedly for a celebration. The lettuce strike, however, was on so I joined the organizing and picketing teams. While doing that, I was asked to join the security staff. I worked for awhile as a bodyguard/personal attendant to the founder and president, Cèsar E. Chavez. I lived with him for awhile at the headquarters in Keene, CA, that he named "Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz" or "La Paz" for short. It is in the Tehachapi Mountains and his family did not move right away from their long time home in Delano, the original home of the UFW. I was privileged to be his "chief cook and bottle washer", learning all about macrobiotic diets! During that time, I met some very interesting and some, even famous, people. Included in that group were: Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker movement; Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and U.S. representative at the United Nations; Danilo Dolci, Italian Socialist; Anthony Quinn, the actor, who speaks his native Spanish very well. 

I joined the United States Navy in 1977 and became a Hospital Corpsman. I had the great fortune of serving with the United States Marine Corps the entire time I was in the Navy. While in the Navy and stationed at the USMC base camp, Mt. Fuji, Japan, on October 19, 1979, there was a horrific typhoon named "Tip" (hurricane) that caused a fire to sweep through our quonset huts, spreading 5,000 gallons of fuel through the camp. We had 13 military and two civilians killed. I also had some PLEASANT times and carry some wonderful memories of my time in the service. If any of you reading this knew me back then, I would love to hear from you. 

Upon discharge in 1982, I moved to San Diego and became an LVN , working mostly in in-patient psychiatric hospitals. 

I worked  (since 1996!) with Special Needs adults and I love that work! I was recently and FORCIBLY retired and am learning to ADJUST! I finally finished my associate degree at Baker in business/CIS/programming.