I’ve lived in West Newton most of my life...

My parents bought a small Cape on Elsworth Road in West Newton around 1959. I walked to kindergarten and 1st grade at Franklin School with my  sister, Ginny, one year younger, and when she'd finished kindergarten, we switched to St. Bernard’s for elementary school. 

In 1963, my parents wanted a slightly bigger house, and bought a Colonial on Waltham Street, a short walk from West Newton Square’s branch library, cinema, and many great local businesses like Barron’s department store and Barbara Jean’s candy store. And we were again able to walk to school, along with other neighborhood kids.

​I graduated from Newton High School in 1973 — the last class out of the old-old high school, and in a much less pressured time than today’s students face. I spent summers working at a small business in Newtonville Square, Berkeley Enterprises, doing layout and paste-up for "Computers and Automation" magazine.

Despite spending most of my free time in high school playing bridge with my friends, I was admitted to MIT, where I graduated in 1977 with a B.S. in Economics. My high school summer job led me to join MIT’s student newspaper, The Tech, where I eventually became managing editor and chairperson. I also spent four years rowing on the women’s crew team — my ideal team sport because it was great exercise that didn’t require hand-eye coordination.

After MIT, I went on to the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, concentrating in finance and accounting, but also volunteering as photographer/photo editor of the GSB's student newspaper, another foreshadowing of the career change I would make a few years later.

After receiving an MBA at Chicago, and several years working for General Motors in Detroit, I decided to switch careers to photojournalism. And although I enjoyed living in Detroit, I missed being near mountains, the ocean, and especially my family and friends back East. After studying at Syracuse University, I became a photo stringer at Associated Press in Boston, and eventually a staff photographer at the Lowell Sun, where I've worked since 1989, through major changes in the news industry to digital and multimedia. I feel privileged to be employed in a profession that’s about keeping people informed, and providing “the first draft of history.” But working in journalism, I also know what it’s like to live on a fixed income!

I've lived in Newton continuously since 1988, and was fortunate to be able to buy a small bungalow on Murray Road in 1993. I love being able to visit my sister and brother-in-law in southern Maine, where they settled after law school, and am a lucky aunt to my nephew Peter, who works for the Island Institute in Maine, and my niece Julie, who coaches Wellesley College field hockey.