After TZ I went to Oberlin College and going home during breaks was to PA where my parents moved my senior year at TZ. Thus I lost touch with everyone in Rockland County. As we get older we get nostalgic so it will be good to see folks after all these years.
After graduating from Oberlin I lived and worked in Philadelphia, working for non profit organizations supporting people with developmental disabilities and also traveled through Europe for a few months. I then moved to Maryland, outside of DC, for graduate school. It was in Maryland that I met my wonderful husband Germa Menassie, a kind and charismatic man from Ethiopia. We were married for 14 too short years. We adopted a 5 year old girl from Ethiopia who is related to Germa. Despite being related, it was a lengthy and tumultuous 18 month international adoption process during which time Germa’s health declined. Sadly, 3 months after our daughter finally came home, Germa passed away and I became a single mom to our daughter. Her childhood was challenging which I won’t go into but I am so proud of the woman she is today at 30 years old. She served in the Army for a few years and is currently in school pursuing a degree in cybersecurity.
Back to my work life – In Maryland I continued to work for various non profit organizations supporting people with developmental disabilities in different roles and eventually landed in HR which I loved. I just retired from my role of HR Director last month. In retirement I’m looking forward to spending more time at my “beach house” that I purchased a couple of years ago near Ocean City, Maryland. I plan to eventually live there full time once I downsize and fix up to sell my “main residence” in Silver Spring, MD. My retirement venture is to be a reseller of vintage and antique decor. This allows me to go thrifting and junking, picking up finds at thrift stores, flea markets and estate sales. This doesn’t really fit with downsizing though so hopefully I’ll be successful at the reselling part. LOL!