Welcome to My Eagles Nest

I will tell you a little about me. I live in Maryland and in Merritt Island Florida. Many moons ago, we had a ranch with 160 acres in the high desert of Colorado. We gave it all up to move to Florida because of my husband's health.

Now, the downside. I lost my beautiful first-born in April 2006. I am beyond words. She was a beautiful girl that had never given me a second of trouble. She had traveled the world on business trips, to Italy, Danmark, Hong Kong, France, Germany. She was a beautiful, sweet size 2 girl. I have her home, vehicle and things. Now, I probably will not part with her things. Thats my option. I am selling the home. She left behind a wonderful Son, Josh who is 16. Its been the hardest thing of my life - dealing with her death. I am beyond words, and not sure how the future will go. One thing is sure, there is no closure when a child dies.

I now live alone in Maryland most of the time, having been married to a wonderful Native American man that I adored, and that man could do everything well, from renovating our boat, to building a deck, to becoming a scuba diving instructor. I was his diving buddy. I LOVE to dive. I love to write, and do. I make a lot of quilt tops. I find that relaxing. I have a commercial business in fabrics, and I collect and deal in vintage linens. I collect vintage hankies & linens, and I sell those on Ebay as well, but I do keep some for myself.

I write, and belong to Romantic Writers of America. I enjoy sailing, but our boat hit some rocks in a storm in Islamorado in the Keys and took on water, so now I am not doing any boating. I have two little cowboy grandsons, named Josh and Jake.

I am close to DC, and Weekends in DC are simply glorious. Every American should see the Kennedy Center just once. I have been there when Clinton was sitting above in the Balcony, and National theatre, and again Clinton was in the audience. So, when you make arrangements to see plays in Washington, the chances of running into a politican is high!!! I have a home in the town of Columbia, MD which is a planned city, and built by the Rouse Company. We are located not far from the Presidential retreat at Camp David.

A Little More About My Life

I am a graduate of J. Hopkins U in Baltimore. My degree is in business, I do business development for a small 8(a) government contractor (mostly NASA) and that pays the bills!! I want to retire again as soon as I can get my daughter's estate in a good condition. I will still have the fabric business and write. I spent over 32 years working in the Space Program, and supported many of the major space missions, including Apollo, Space Shuttle, Space Station, and 9 years on Hubble as one of the servicing mission team members. My love is writing and fabrics. I embroider, and make quilts, and during the divorce from hell(DFH) in a 6-week period (sitting on the water in Florida) I did 8 pillows, made them and put on the pattern and embroidered then, then finished them off, put trim around them, and gave out at Xmas time to my kids, and they better appreciate those!!! Also, I did 10 pairs of pillow cases as I waited for the Divorce from Hell. I gave the children a pair each for Xmas. Ended up my husband and I typed up our own agreements for the divorce and home and boat in Florida, signed them before a Notary, and they were presented to a judge next day, and I was flying out of Orlando as this was happening, and I was a free woman by the time I landed in Maryland. Not my choice, as I was married to a wonderful man, but one every woman in Florida seemed to love, as well!!! I kept the home on the water, and he kept the boat. Seemed a fair choice. I miss him still, and we have become nice friends.

I came off 9 years on the Hubble Space Telescope program as their Data Manager before getting back into the fabric business, and helping write proposals for Govt contracts. We prepared the servicing missions to fix the Hubble, trained the astronauts by diving into neutral buyoyancy and teaching them to fix the Hubble. It was one of the most rewarding part of my career. I worked on the first Space Shuttle launch for 5 years back in 1978 through the 80's, and I wrote the original Launch and Landing Procedures for the Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center, and the original Range Safety Procedures for the Shuttle Program, the Interface Procedures among the European Space Agency, the DoD, and the NASA. Other than that....I just grew flowers!!!! Oh yes, and raised those 5 teenagers.

I am a cancer survivor. My husband has cancer still, and manages to survive daily, as well he dives, and play tennis from time to time, and he lives life to its fullest. He had a couple of heart attacks as well. He never let anything stop him. We truly enjoyed life, and we lived in the Keys and in Key West for a while, as well. Yes, it gets boring in Paradise!!! I am regressing again.

I am currently trying to get over the death of my first-born, Susan, a beautiful girl, size 2, with lovely clothes, loved shoes and purses, and I have eought to last me a lifetime. I cannot bear to let anything go just yet. I am working with my fabrics as a business and my love. But in order to "pay the bills," I do business development for a company outside the beltway of Washington .

I started my career with the CIA, then went to NLRB, ICC, and then NASA. My husband was a Federal Investigator, Shadow, and did undercover investigations. He would "assume" a role, and take on the character of the people he was dealing with, and infilterate. He also had a stint guarding Oliver North! He was a Vietman Veteran, is disabled with cancer but it did not stop him until about 12 years ago when he was told to stop working by the VA because his health was so bad that he was in a wheelchair (the cancer was from Agent Orange, it was treated, and developed into Lukemina)- he is a former POW, as well.

Ok, I believe that is enough for today. I love life, and I love my family and my siblings (lost my oldest sister to complications from a Kidney infection), and my fabrics (did I say that before?). I am sitting in my Florida home on the water just south of the Kennedy Space center and on the same island. I will probably start renting this out once I get some things done to it. Does anyone want to rent a furnished house at Merritt Island, Fla?? I am on the water and can literally fall off the deck into the water!!

Oh yes, I create original pillows under the name Coyote Creek. Florida is my solitude. I am finishing a book about Vietnam, the CIA, and love. Thats all for now!! I pray I can get over the death of my child. Its horrible knowing she will not be there to "fight" over my things or help with my arrangements when I leave this Mother Earth. Its hard to bring something into the world, and then plan the funeral of that person. Going through her beautiful clothes and choosing a shirt and jeans was the hardest thing I have ever done. Her father pre-deceased her, and she adored her dad. I miss them both. There is no such thing as closure. It simply does not happen. You go on with life, but you never forget, and there is not a day I don't think about Susan. Regards