I moved to Phoenix in 1993 with my husband, eleven-year-old son,  and our Labrador retriever  to build a science museum. Serving as CEO, I led the team that opened the Arizona Science Center and welcomed nearly 400,000 visitors each year.

Towards the end of my tenure, my mother had a stroke. She declined over a period of eleven months, losing memories, then words, and then sense of herself. So I felt compelled to write her story down, and then I realized I wanted to write more. Not analytic stuff about museums, but something looser and evocative. So I turned to fiction at age 63.

Writing as a "second act" is thrilling and humbling. I use skills and work habits learned in my first act to express thoughts and feelings--the fruit of decades--that I hadn't articulated before. I'm still engaged with the world, but I'm exploring in a different dimension.

In addition to career and motherhood, I’ve practiced yoga and dabbled in foreign languages. Born in a taxi in Manhattan, I studied at the Bronx High School of Science, Harvard University, and the University of California at Berkeley.  

To see some of my past writing about science museums, click here. To read my blog about living in a continuing care retirement community  and other issues of interest to mature women, click here. Sign up for my monthly newsletter here.