30 Years Since High School
A Message to my 1977 classmates at
Elizabeth Seton High School
December 14, 2007
My graduating class at Elizabeth
Seton High School in Bladensburg,
Maryland recently had their 30 year
reunion. I was not able to
attend but posted a message about
what I'd been doing the last thirty
years. The message is below
this picture of me at age 17 taken
while visiting my brother Mickey in
Sacramento the summer before I
graduated.
Not much change in the face, but
whoever advised me on my hair-style
back then should be shot.
TO MY FRIENDS AT ESHS .....
So sorry I wasn't able to make it
to the reunion. I remember the time
I spent at Seton as being happy and
memorable, though I've lost track of
my closest friends there.
I married my Iranian boyfriend in
1977, two months after graduation.
We had two little boys, Dominic and
Daniel, within four years. When I
was 24 and pregnant with my
daughter, Lara, my husband left us.
I eventually made my financial way
by being a Tupperware dealer and
manager. I found many Seton
acquaintances in those years showing
up at Tupperware parties in the
Baltimore / Washington area. I
became successful and eventually
owned the Tupperware distribution
franchise on Sunnyside Avenue in
Beltsville.
In 1988 I married Andy Santi. He
adopted my children and we settled
in Howard County. Sadly, Andy became
ill and died. The children and
once again figured things out and
found a new path.
I sold the Tupperware franchise and
bought a Catholic publishing house
working as a publisher of books and
music for seven years. During that
time I met Dan Burgoyne, an
Iron-worker turned floral designer
from the backwoods of Maine (another
story for another day), and married
him in 1999. Dan's three children
and my three children comprise our
blended family, and we’re happy and
dysfunctional as most families are.
All our children are grown now. We
have five grandchildren and number
six is due next month.
I was going to begin this post by
responding to the “marital status”
question with ….. divorced, widowed,
married … or married three times,
every eleven years – 1977, 1988, and
1999. But I figured a little
background might quell the misguided
curiosity of those who didn’t know
me very well.
Dan and I moved to Maryland's
Eastern Shore five years ago when
our youngest child - Lara graduated
from Mount DeSales in Baltimore. She
is now 23, married and working in
Salisbury as an esthetician (someone
who rips out you facial hair and
commits other semi-violent acts to
make women beautiful).
Currently, I work for the State of
Maryland’s Department of Business
and Economic Development supporting
economic development initiatives on
the Eastern Shore. I am also a
writer recently finishing my second
book for Arcadia Publishing on small
towns in Maryland. I run four blog
sites and am currently working on a
book about holy / sacred sites in
Ireland, Scotland, Wales and
England. Hopefully, it will be
published next year.
If any of you find yourself
traveling down Route 50 towards the
Atlantic beaches and you'd like to
explore the hidden Eastern Shore –
restaurants, museums, heritage sites
and fun places we don’t tell the
tourists about- please email me. Our
kids are grown; we live in a town
with fewer than 700 people 22 miles
from the Super Wal-Mart.
Basically - we have no life other
than our jobs ...and ... we love
visitors. We’ll catch up and get
reacquainted.
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