My roots are in the small town of Spencerport NY, way up north on the Erie Canal. My husband Joe and I met in graduate school, married, had two sons and spent the next several years moving from Buffalo NY to NC, TN, and then northeast PA. Sixteen years later Joe, our dog Gruffy, and I piled into the car and headed south to Georgia. An adored career in Early Childhood Education spanned 30 years and four states. In 2009, when Lyme Disease and multiple co-infections brought all that to a screeching halt, an earlier love of writing and dreams of becoming an artist resurfaced and had time to grow. Since that time, my poetry has been featured in Every Day Poems (via Tweetspeak Poetry), Poetry Nook vol 3, and When Women Waken issue 3 and my artwork, featured in the children's book A is for Azure: The Alphabet in Colors by L.L. Barkat, evolved into an award winning Gallery show. A long battle with tick borne diseases gave birth to my memoir, Messages on the Mirror: Lovenotes and Lyme.