A good deal has happened in my life since 1971!! From 1975, graduating from SUNY Fredonia with a BS in Elementary Education, I have held approximately 10 different jobs, and most likely six or seven different careers!! I have done my time in retail, starting out as a cashier, then moving my way up to management. I have been an admin to 6 different companies while working at Nine Mile II during the construction of the nuke plant. I then moved to a very short unsuccessful role as a secretary for an accountant - CHEEZ -that was horrible!! I then fell into working for Sealright, a manufacturer of round and square-round ice cream containers. [i.e. Edys, Haagen Dazs].

Upper management saw something in me and within a year, I was put in charge of the printing inks, the first and only woman supervisor in the facility.

Somewhere between the end of my career in retail and ink supervisor, I got married and divorced, bought 16 acres of property, built a three-bedroom with a mother-in-law’s apartment and move my parents up to the thriving hamlet of Hannibal, NY.

About the time my ink room career was booming, I met Mark Washburn. In 1995, I once again gave up my freedom and married the man of my dreams. Then about 1998 things got crazy. I went from ice cream packaging to soap packaging, to water filter manufacturing. Then feeling I should use my undergraduate degree (also in 1995 I received my Masters in Management from SUNY Oswego). I enjoyed two years of substitute teaching. I loved it!

Along came an opportunity to use my teaching abilities as well as my management skills. I worked for the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) in Onondaga and Oswego Counties. I worked with individuals wanting to open their own businesses. I taught a 20-hour class then counseled the entrepreneurs to success or failure. 

During the dream job with SBDC, I was given a couple of unique opportunities. In 2004, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease then in 2012-13 I had to get rid of one of the girls and had a mastectomy. I truly feel both bouts with medical world were opportunities. You learn “what you are made of.” By 2010, I left the working world and became a ward of the government. Now, Mark and I are retired.

With Mark, well, life was never dull. We raised dogs for guide dogs for about 15 years and 14 dogs. We attended symphonies, Broadway plays, Syracuse Stage, canoed all over NYS, and had a great time. [We still have a great time, just move a bit slower!]

I can no longer remember how many personal dogs we have had. Once we owned six at one time. Now we’re down to Max our newest, a Belgium Malinois and Bosco a dog of questionable parentage. Cats also adorn the house, now at a high count of four. All critters are rescues.

I could tell you more, but then I’d have to eliminate you. Someday I’ll write a book, then you can hear …. “The rest of the story.”

[updated May 2018]