My early life was shaped by the loss of my father to an untimely death when I was only four. Left a widow, my mother worked three jobs to keep body and soul together, and I owe her deep thanks for her focus on my education and for her marriage to my stepfather, a wonderful man. In my adult life, I earned a master's and a doctorate and served as a social worker. Poetry has always been my avocation. My life would not have been complete without my children, both adopted and both beautiful and talented in their own ways. In late middle age, I became a minister in the Church of Religious Science, and I retired at age seventy-five. I have dealt with Parkinson's disease for over thirty-one years, and I thank my editor for her persistence and attention to detail so that this work could become possible.
