My father was born and raised in a basement apartment in Chicago, IL and my mother a duplex apartment in Dover, New Hampshire.

I was raised in Somersworth, New Hampshire in a house on a quarter acre lot in a working-class neighborhood with parallel and intersecting streets.  Many of the homeowners with modest educations walked to work to the downtown General Electric plant and shoe manufacturer.

For much of my childhood my father was a construction worker building the nuclear power plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire.  My mother worked at the downtown shoe mill manufacturer; however, mostly stayed home as a parent provider.  I sensed we were in a better financial situation than many in our neighborhood, but not well off. I never felt housing insecure, including when my father passed away while at work when I was aged 15. 

After my father’s passing, my mother, primarily a stay-at-home parent and without a driver’s license, became an in-home childcare provider to many children to keep us housed.  It was only as an adult that I learned that as a minor, I was insulated from our housing insecurities and my mother’s anxieties, as she wanted to maintain the life I knew prior to my father’s passing.

My mother mostly relied on the COAST bus system to access food and other essentials, and often simply to interact with other people. When she passed at the age of 68, a temporary sign was placed at her usual bus stop reading, “Ellie’s Stop.” 

I strive to live a life of awareness we are all interconnected, to smell the roses of today, plant roses for tomorrow, and to have a lasting influence, beyond my own name recognition.