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About Me
I am a Pennsylvania native, born and raised in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Always a lover of American history,
I used to wonder if I should have been born in the 19th century but somehow got flash-forwarded into the 20th.
Regardless of which century I was in, there was never any question I would be a nurse when I grew up.
And beginning in about the seventh grade, there was no question I’d launch that nursing career in the military.
After graduating from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, I entered the Army Nurse Corps. That was in 1972,
just as the Vietnam War was winding down. My first duty station was Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
There I was privileged to care for the bodies and spirits of soldiers and veterans, including repatriated POWs and MIAs.
That is also where I met my husband, Keith, a medical specialist. I did a one-year tour of duty in South Korea,
stationed at the 121st Evac Hospital. My Army stint concluded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
where I worked in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, and where my first child was born. My military experience has
helped in writing parts of my novels. My support of the military is ongoing, and a favorite pastime is volunteering
at the USO at the Denver International Airport.
I think I had a writer lying dormant inside me early on. But that alter ego only emerged when I was in my thirties,
living in Hawaii, nursing part time, married and raising four children—a great time to take on the Herculean effort
of writing a novel!
I am a member of a federal medical disaster team, and have been deployed to several disasters around the U.S.
Since 1986 I have lived in my adopted state of Colorado, in the foothills west of Denver.
My children are grown, and have given me five adorable grandchildren.
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