I was born in Glendale, California, and lived in North Hollywood, a suburb of Los Angeles, until high school, when my family moved to Santa Rosa and then to a 40-acre orchard in Healdsburg, northern California. We grew apples, pears, and prunes (which are not dried plums, as many people think). After high school, I moved to Oakland to begin college and earned an undergraduate degree in English Literature from California Lutheran College in Thousand Oaks. When I was 35, I moved to Gainesville, Florida, where my oldest daughter, Julia, was born. I worked as a School Psychologist and then moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where my youngest child was born. I remarried in 1991, and in February of 2012, we moved to Greenville, South Carolina, in order to be close to family members as we age and increasingly need one another’s help and support as our family expands through marriages and the births of grandchildren. I call it “circling the wagons.”
I grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles in the 1940s, when our country had half the population it has now. Those were different times, and they form the bedrock for my view of life: “Life is flux.” And so, adaptation is the name of the game. In my life, at least, adaptation has been forced upon me by change, that is, by reality.
Having two grown children from a previous marriage has sensitized me to the problems and issues associated with divorce, remarriage, and the formation of stepfamilies. My wife and mother-in-law were born in Iran and immigrated to this country after the revolution, which taught me much about cross-cultural issues and diversity.
I am partially retired, working 4 days a week, from 11 am to 4 pm. as a Life Stage Relational Coach. I love this work and have no plans to fully retire until forced to by health conditions or circumstances.
Me with Hanna
our newest pet
Mo, our son
My wife and I
Three generations of the family
