I was born in Woodville and schooled in Taranaki at Tarata, Egmont Village and Inglewood High Schools.  I went to Australia in 1979 for my big OE and met Bill and we married in 1989. I spent 14 years working for an International Manufacturing company in Sydney, in the Customer Service and order department.  I was the Customer Service Manager for 7 years. After this Bill and I ran our own retail business on the Central Coast of NSW for 19 years.  I had by this time spent 36 years living in Australia and we decided it was time to retire and in 2015 returned to New Zealand leaving behind our grown up children. We have 5 children between us, 12 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.  All of them live in the Australian states of New South Wales and South Australia.  I have been a Rotarian since August 2006.