I am a 55-year old single lady living in a very rare and beautiful 144-year old Victorian home that I have restored in Forest Grove, Oregon. I have two grown children--a young lady who is 26 and a young man who is 23. I also have a wonderful man in my life who is truly an environmental hero and who is kind and gentle as well as very supportive of me. The three of them, my daughter, son, and partner, are the lights of my life. I love to grow old fashioned heritage roses, delphiniums, foxgloves, peonies, dahlias, lilies, and vegetables. And, I love to read and write.

Since 1977, I have been trained as a technical writer, instructional designer, and Web content author; and I worked for over 20 years as a freelance consultant for various companies in the Pacific Northwest including Intel, Microsoft, Conway Transportation, and Tektronix, among many others. I recently was laid off after four years of working full-time at ZRT Laboratory -- a medical diagnostics laboratory that tests human hormones via saliva and blood spot. I managed their Internal Documentation Department and was responsible for writing all of their internal procedures, maintaining their Web site content, creating multimedia presentations, and writing marketing communications documents for them. Just prior to my layoff, I found myself helping my 82-year old mother with moving her into assisted living and totally liquidating and restoring her home so that it could be sold. She is in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Last week, I finally got her home sold after one month of grueling, non-stop work! So, it has been a very challenging time for me. When women used to tell me about how incredibly hard it is to take over their aging parents' end-of-life affairs, I never understood until now. This has been the most difficult challenge of my life!

World Pulse sounds like a fabulous organization that I would like to somehow become a part of because they champion the causes of women the world over. I'm looking forward to connecting with women who are associated with this great-sounding organization. I would love to work for such an organization someday.