When I was 5 years old, the principal of our elementary school called me into her office.
She handed me a large pad of paper and a shiny new pencil. The principal proceeded to tell me that I was going to be a writer. Mind you, I did not know at that point how to properly write my name, or what a “writer” was. My kind, grey haired principal told me that when thoughts, ideas, details that happened to me, to keep track of those things, to write them down, draw pictures about them to remember what the idea was. I learned to write my name, then all the other letters of the alphabet to follow. In grammar school I wrote many poems, I had a couple published. In middle school, I wrote a play which our class performed for the other classes. While in high school, I wrote articles for a local newspaper, until it was to college for all the many papers that we all needed to complete to get through school.
I went to work for the state of NY and while working there for 32.5 years, I received a masters in science degree in Psychiatric Rehabilitation. I continued to write the many stories of my clients, for clinicals-in my care, for all those years. I made use of my two undergraduate degrees, a bachelors in science in Behavioral Science, associates in Liberal Arts ;as I worked as a habilitation specialist.
In 2002 I wrote and published my first book which brought some recognition for me, and in 2004 my co-workers nominated me for Woman of the Year Award. I was honored to actually win this prestigious award and along with the award, I received a wonderful plaque from the National Women’s Hall of Fame. The duplicate plaque of this 2004 award was hung in the collection of plaques for The Living Legacy awards there at the National Women’s Hall of fame, I was honored. Once I retired from my state job, I founded a program called “Victory House,” a day program which was meant for habilitation training for abused women. I partnered with a local half-way house. This was a weekly volunteer experience for the half-way house participants. I ran this program for 8 years, I funded this work totally on my own, with the exception of donated fabrics and sewing machines. I taught the women how to make quilts, thousands of quilts came out of that endeavor, many souls were saved through this work. I have also published 2 other books that are in circulation and just finished my 4th book which I am hoping will be out this year sometime.
I have educated, spoken in multiple community agencies, churches and schools. My focus for education: character building, boundaries, healthy relationships, healthy guidelines, abusive characteristics, safe connections, and empowerment.
My job currently is a private consultant/counselor for a state university, this will be my19th year in contract with them. I continue to train multiple people through this contract.