If we could share time over coffee, I’d want to know about you and what you love. For me, apart from my family and friends, I’d tell you I love sunrises, waterfalls, and coffee on the beach. For me, a new sunrise offers hope, waterfalls show us life moves forward, and well, morning coffee with donuts on the beach is a simple gift.

Where I’ve Been

My decades have taken me to roles of writer, speaker, speech-language pathologist, Bible teacher, grief support facilitator, wife, mother of three, and grandmother to eight. I was born and raised in New York state with a rich Italian heritage, lived on a Caribbean island after I married, and in our forty-two year marriage, added four states to our addresses.

When my husband took early retirement in 2009, we left our wintry Pennsylvania home of sixteen years and moved to the sunny Charlotte area. Life abruptly changed for me, when in December 2011, two thousand miles from home and two days before Christmas, my husband suffered a fatal attack. Personal grief, pain, and loss ran deep in the most dramatic life interruption and detour of my life. Hope and grace surfaced in this most unexpected and cloudy season as I relied on God’s promises of comfort and faithfulness. And relying on God’s profound grace and plan, I relocated alone, to Greer, SC to be near family.

Why I write

Life experiences–the hard, ordinary, surprising, and spectacular–have shown me over and over that God is faithful to weave hope and purpose into our life stories. Each night, I rewind my day and add to my weaving, a prayer that includes five things I am thankful about that day, a gratitude practice that has become a balm of peace and reminders of God’s faithfulness.