Monday, January 28, 2008

Carolyn Gramling-McAleese--Busy and Creative

For the past three years I have been teaching an English class at night, once a week in Hollywood, FL--and I just found out that Carolyn Gramling McAleese lives only five minutes from my classroom!

We got together tonight (Jan. 28) and any sense of a 50-year separation just melted away. Here's what she's up to these days:

A registered nurse, she teaches childbirth classes two days a week at a nearby hospital. Once a month she teaches a 9 am to 5 pm class in childbirth for those moms who want to get the training all at once and not in weekly doses. (She calls it a "Childbirth Marathon".) She also serves as a grief counselor for moms whose babies died or who had miscarriages.

She and her husband George do a lot of work with the homeless, cooking, fundraising for their needs, etc. George owns a company in Hialeah that manufactures padding for furniture.

Carolyn is president of the women's guild at her Episcopal church and chairs a monthly book discussion that draws women from all over town. The group invites speakers to share information with them on the needs of women in other cultures. This month's subject is the women of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Carolyn is bubbly and warm, just as I remembered her. We plan to drive together to the reunion in May and will work together in the Information Center set up at the Hampton Inn. (That's a special room where you can drop by and see if your friends have reached town yet and get help on finding places in St. Pete.)

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