Board Member Spotlight

I've been involved with SLO Village since the very first interest meeting was held!  I phoned the Village-to-Village Network (national organization) for more information and found that GALA had joined and planned to start a Village in SLO.   I made some phone calls, invited my neighbors to that first organizing meeting and the rest is history.

I've been married to my partner Gene since 1963.  He picked me up on the beach at Lake Tahoe and asked me to go for a ride in his boat. We were married two years later, three days after President Kennedy signed the married man's draft exemption act during the height of the Vietnam War. His boss gave him three days off and told him to go get married!

When we first moved to San Luis Obispo, we lived out in the Edna Valley and ran a three-room Bed and Breakfast. It was my retirement "hobby".  We had lots of cats; many became pets. We needed more; the gophers were definitely winning the battle on our 10-acre plot. Some of those furry creatures wormed their way into our hearts and our house. One, Tigerlily,is still with us.

I love to travel and have had many trips to Europe, but also Canada and Japan to attend International AIDS conferences. I spent the 15 years before I retired at Harbor UCLA running Clinical Trials on drugs to combat HIV.

Like many others, I am living through my second pandemic! I had certainly heard of Anthony Fauci long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The most astounding thing anyone ever did for me was a gal at church told me she had made a New Year's resolution to be "girly" (i.e., fix up her hair, wear makeup and wear a dress) every day for a year.  I told her I didn't think I even owned a dress and certainly never wore one.  I said, "I should try it". The next week, she brought me a whole bag of clothes that she purchased for me.  I was touched!  Of course, many of them had to be returned, but it was so very thoughtful of her.