So…has it really been almost 50 years? It has. High School, for me, was a bit of a challenge as most of my days at LHS were literally spent rushing from class to class, minimal breaks for socialization and then leaving school early to retain my status and honor my responsibilities as a ballerina with The New Jersey Ballet Company. Since the age of 14, I had been under contract with the ballet company and the requirements were rigid. One of them was to attend three classes per day, which required me to leave my last class of the day at school before it ended. The school gave special dispensation due to the nature of what I was doing at my age. 

I also had to miss classes in order to participate in demonstrations at other schools that the Company conducted to enlighten aspiring children in school of the rigors, discipline and devotion it takes to be a ballerina. Also, there were many rehearsals and performances that at times made it hard to manage both school and my job. Hence, I really did not get to know my fellow classmates or spend much time engaging in normal social activities. 

After graduation, I remained with the ballet company until I was almost age 19. But I was getting bored with the strict classical form of dance and wanted to broaden my horizons. I had already been venturing into NYC at age 16 to take classes and auditions but by 19 I was doing shows at The Chateau Madrid, performing at the Car Show at The Jacob Javits Center, and still auditioning for other shows.

I received an offer to go to the Dominican Republic to do a show for several months and once completed, the producer wanted me for a show in Puerto Rico. After that, there were two years in Miami Beach doing shows in Bal Harbor. I made it back to NYC where I was asked to be in an Off-Broadway show called “Manhattan Rhythm,” which is where I met my husband who was the drummer for the live band that performed in the show. Like me, he was a professional musician and singer who had been performing since he was young. When the show closed, I started a new show at the Cafe Versailles in NYC and he continued bartending and doing music with his own band at clubs in NYC. Around this time, we got married and continued still doing what we loved as a dancer and a musician while living in Brooklyn and working in NYC.

I was offered a job to work with Joe Layton and Cy Coleman, both choreographers and producers, on a more risqué version of the Broadway show “Chicago” called “Shecago” in Chicago. My husband bartended while we were there. Upon, returning home to NY he became a car salesman and later a General Manager at Bay Ridge Honda but still playing occasional gigs as we had now had two daughters and needed a stable financial source. I continued working for a professional dance company hired to entertain at corporate parties and other large-scale events in and around the city and Long Island and New Jersey.

We moved back to New Jersey where we could indulge both our daughters’ passions with horses. My life became centered around managing their lessons, horse shows, supplying equipment for them, transportation, and paying for the care and maintenance of their two horses. Scarlett and Devon. I also became a realtor at this time working for Century 21 and then Coldwell Banker.

As in life though, tragedy did find us after many years of a beautiful and happy life blessed with wonderful, amazing and loving children. Their father was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in 2014. By now he had seen our daughter, Shaina Rae, get married and deliver our beautiful granddaughter, Skylar Elizabeth, who at this point was only two years old. He also got to see our youngest daughter, Crysta Lyn, graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Rutgers. He was so proud of all of them and we spent as much time as we all could indulging him in as much happiness as possible until he passed in November 2016.

My daughter Crysta, who had always dreamed of moving to Colorado, finally did in 2017 after not wanting to leave her father. With her truck and trailer, she took her horse Devon and her dog Juno on a solo trip cross country to find her dream. I visited her several times there and she showed me her world. I couldn’t have been happier, nor could her father following her from the heavens. And she was happiest there. Until our second tragedy that took her life in Colorado on January 3, 2019. She was 26.

Needless to say, my life almost evaporated but for the love and devotion I have for my Shaina and Skylar. They keep me going. I haven’t worked since Crysta passed but I find solace and comfort in the little cottage I have by the sea. I wake up to magic every morning with the rising sun and the boats in the water passing by and believe I am still so close to both my daughters now in unique ways. I will never be the same person I was. I lost too much. But I walk miles every day much like Forest Gump with his running. Because like he said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”