Hello all. Thought it time to introduce myself…coming from an alcoholic abusive home, I would escape into the Adirondacks (we had a ‘summer home’-a trailer chained to a tree in Old Forge, NY).  The mountains were safe. I met an older Native American, who taught me an appreciation for poetry (William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, etc.), taught me to track and forage (I was 9 or 10). He was incredible.  And if you are wondering, mom was so drunk she didn’t miss me and our dog for days. Dad only came weekends-he was an IBM employee (and a WWII veteran of the Philippines). That’s when I started writing poems, and graduated to writing poems to instrumental music, especially my friend Christopher Franke’s (from Tangerine Dream) music. Never took myself seriously. I was always a people pleaser, making everyone else’s dreams come true. Fast forward to a divorce (he wanted no kids and a younger woman-we had two children), becoming a partner of what I later learned was a narcissistic man who left me after 15 years together (he’s 55) for a 20 year old last March.  Why?  Because being disabled I can’t do what I had been doing pre-stroke-sex and vegetable farming (weeding, harvesting, packing for markets… and baking for 6 markets a week (90+ loves/rolls different breads, sweet rolls, etc), leaving me 3 hours of sleep a night. At 50 I had a massive hemorrhagic stroke which the doctors were surprised I lived through because where it was located, it wiped out all my “prime real estate”.  26% survive hemorrhagic stroke. Of those, maybe 4-5 % go on to have any kind of a meaningful life. I couldn’t speak (aphasia), my cognitive abilities were off (see picture of a tree, think tree, say banana…), I couldn’t walk, read, write, or crochet. The doctors said there was little hope. I said “watch me!”  Learned to navigate with a hemi-walker, went back to work as a full time substitute/interim teacher after a year, the kids helped me start to talk better (I’d known these kids since kindergarten-they were Jr/Sr high school students now), would write the teachers instructions on the board for me, make sure I was following along in the class readings-still couldn’t read or write well. On periods off, the kids would come and help me with classes, make me talk non-stop, walked the halls with me, and I also started an underground (not sanctioned) poetry club with a bunch of misunderstood and ’bad’ kids.  Covid hit, I was laid off, and my daughter talked me into going back to school for a masters in Creative Writing/Poetry. She paid for it too! ❤️❤️❤️

Last February I graduated Summa Cum Laude from college with my masters. Am now a volunteer Associate Production Editor, helped write a scientific paper for the Brain Institute of America, and started my career as a Podcast Guest. I am now an International Motivational Speaker and have even been on James Miller’s Lifeology! I have spoken on radio shows (Zoom) in Hollywood, Canada, and Britain, plus more!. 

My podcast appearances focus on the stroke, -depression, addiction to pain killers, my triumphs, the kids belief in me and them becoming the teachers of the teacher: Not taking no for an answer: talking about neuroplastisity: the children’s series I’ve started-first book out “Tippy’s New Friend” where a lonely dragon (Seren) finds friendship with Tippy (my dog) and Lana, and start exploring. The second, “Tippy Goes to California”, where my friend Christopher Franke shows us around the state, comes out this summer. I’ve also started a Mid-Grade adventure/mystery series, working on book 2-yes, complete with dragons of course: my post stroke journey: poetry chapter books: a historical romance with a twist (2 chapters from being done!  -yes, I have ADHD and need to be working on at least 5 things or more at once-hence add in crocheting one handed-dragons-of course, and now baby things.