Debby
I was born in Chicago in 1946. When I was nine, my folks, older sister and I moved to Long Island, where I lived until I went off to college, first in Ohio, then in Binghamton, New York, then back to Ohio for a graduate degree in social work.
I became a community organizer, working for the National Welfare Rights Organization in the 60's. Attending a meeting in Washington, I fell in love with the beautiful George Washington Parkway - that might sound like a joke, but anyone who has driven that particular road will know its true! So, given, the opportunity, I moved to the D.C./Maryland area to work in the NWRO National office.
I met Ron while folk dancing and two weeks later told a friend that I had met the guy I was going to marry! Two years later, we did - and that was in 1974!
I decided I wanted to be a psychotherapist, went back to school for a second masters, and began working at private, nonprofit counseling agencies. I went into private practice in 1991.
I became interested in hypnosis and then in something called energy psychotherapy and energetic healing, which I now specialize in. Although I was raised as an agnostic Jew, the energy work has led me to a place of joyful spirituality.
I also play tennis - addictively, though not particularly well!
Ron and I have two children. David is attending graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. In high school, he started an environmental organization that is now ten years old. He's currently on the Board of Directors of the national Sierra Club. We hope, hope, hope that he'll move out west when he's completed his degree.
You can read about our daughter, Jessica, here. She and Jeremy claim that I asked them on their wedding day when I might expect grandchildren, so naturally I've been the most doting of grandmothers! This was a little challenging since we were living in Maryland when they were in Ohio and then southern California, but I flew out to see Shoshana and Rachel every month for five years.
When they decided to move to CoHo, we initially planned to join them in Corvallis but in regular housing. But the more I heard about cohousing, the more excited I became at the thought of actually knowing my neighbors and living in community. I realized it was something I had always wanted but never knew how to name. And living here is just wonderful!
Ron
I was born in Albany, New York in 1945, but the family moved back to New York in 1950 where I grew up. Queens, New York was a fabulous place to grow up in those days - I don't know what it is like now. I have an older sister who is an artist and a brother who is my closest friend.
It seems like yesterday but I seemingly attended schools endlessly. I earned 2 masters degrees and a Ph.D in mathematical statistics - but all I seem to remember about schtatitics is how to spell it.
I met my wife Deb in 1972 at folk dancing. She was wearing a short tight red skirt, and we have been together ever since. We have two kids, David and Jessica. Somehow - and I don't discount luck - we navigated all the wonderful and treacherous years of child-rearing, and have two wonderful children, as well as two world-class grandchildren.
My abilities always seem to tend to math and science, and I have alternately worked at a lot of different and interesting jobs as a researcher, mathematician/statistician, and software engineer. Once, I seemed to be changing jobs so often, the kids stopped memorizing my work phone number. Hopefully, in retirement now, I will figure out what I really want to do when I grow up.
I've always lived in a big city - New York and Washington - but am loving living in a small community in a vibrant town - and that place is Coho in Corvallis, Oregon.
