I came from a very strong and strict Catholic upbringing in a troubled home, the facts of which I worked very hard to hide. I do not believe there was any love there, for anyone. I lived in my imagination, and I had a very wide range of secret interests.
I loved to read, I took piano lessons, and I was extremely interested in the world outside the walls of my home. By high school, I knew I wanted to go to college. I wanted to break free of the crippling and destructive messages I heard from my parents, messages my brother and sister heard as well. I decided the answer for me would lie in becoming educated so I could support myself and leave home. I finished high school and my parents made it clear I would not be able to go away to college but had to live at home. I made that work, and four years later I graduated and got a job almost immediately. I worked in the medical school library in the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark, now, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. After working for a few years, and finding I loved the work and the people in it, I applied to the master’s degree program of Library Science at Rutgers University and completed in 1977. I had a very fulfilling and long career which ended in 2008.
I loved my career with a passion and took it very seriously. I was well supported by my management where I worked and went to many professional meetings and continuing education classes. I networked with librarians from other organizations and enjoyed knowing and respecting them. Life went on. But I was very young in 1972 when my career began and I was a different person in 2008. Over time, I saw the profession decimated by vendors who developed “end user products” with an internet search interface, so people could do their own research, as if they were on Google. I was told to dismantle three libraries over the later years of my career. Slowly, I became demoralized, depressed, and very sick. I retired early and went on Disability.
Once I was home, and I was free to let my mind wander and rest, it went to where my heart had been dormant for a long time. I had a passion I could not live previously due to the demands of my responsibilities at home and at work. Slowly, with my husband’s love and support, my whole world changed when my keen interest in breeding dogs and showing them in conformation came to fruition. We considered many breeds from Labrador Retrievers, Chinese Crested, and various terriers, but the best opportunities for purchasing dogs and being mentored came from the borzoi community.
We purchased several dogs over the next few years. Although they did not all win in the ring, they were all winners in our hearts. Our kennel name was Blyss, and we successfully bred one litter in December 2008. However, my husband’s unexpected, early death in 2011 put an end to my kennel. I kept all of my borzoi when he died, but I never bred another litter. I have remained active in the borzoi organizations, some of which are international, national and local, and have made many friends. The Blyss borzoi are well known and remembered. They are all gone, and I can never bring them back. One can find them at my website where I have a Blog: www.blysskennels.us
“A million words won’t bring you back, I know because I tried.
Neither would a million tears, I know, because I cried.”