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Hometown

Pittsburgh

Joie de VIVre

My girls — 5 and 3 — who teach me daily about what’s important in life and humble me; reading; being an owner/partner in my own public relations business.

VIV Moment

On the surface, my moment may seem a bit depressing, but it represents a moment for me when I came to a clear realization of my role and purpose in this great, big crazy world. It was September 2002; I was on vacation on Lake Muskoka in Ontario, Canada, a place where I spent every summer of my life, as my family owned a cottage there until 1995.

I was with my husband, my 2-year-old daughter, and my beautiful infant daughter, who was all of 6 weeks old. We had rented a cottage just across the lake from my family’s old property. On the second day of our vacation, I received a call from my only brother, who informed me that my aunt M.E., with whom I was very close, had passed away earlier that day. The call was not unexpected, as she had been in the hospital for a few days, but sad nevertheless. I cried in the kitchen alone and then headed out to the deck that overlooked the lake, scooped up the baby in my arms and sat in a chair gazing across the lake at my family’s old cottage. And I found myself smiling.

My aunt would have wanted me to be nowhere else on earth when I got the news. Looking at this new, gurgling, giggling baby girl, I felt that she embodied the new chapter in my life and I knew the torch had been passed—it was now my job to teach my girls about the family’s traditions on the lake and how much it meant to each of us. I was the link to the past for them. What a wonderful responsibility, one I try to honor every day.

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