Ladies That Rock: Transformative Moments in a Woman's Life.

By Lynn Delaney

Do you remember that time in your life when things took a dramatic turn for the better or worse? Or have friends ever told you that your story is so interesting you should write it down in a book? Ladies that Rock is such a book. I have been fortunate to find many admirable women who, on looking back, recognize the turning points in their lives, ones that have made them who they are today.
My own story was the catalyst for this book. How can I forget the exact moment that started the chain of events taking me from being a financially struggling, single mother of three young children teaching thirty-two fitness classes a week, transforming, out of necessity and determination, into a business woman who travelled to every corner of the globe, training thousands of women to run their own skincare and cosmetic businesses.
Evolving out of my lifes interest in supporting womens successes, be they physical or financial, comes this compilation of real-life, sometimes gritty narratives, Ladies that Rock.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483624105

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Lynn Delaney.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 02/20/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

550725

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. MOTHERS AREN’T ALWAYS RIGHT. Susan Shanahan

2. THE BEST DAY… THEN THE WORST Diane Forlenza

3. ERNIE SAVED MY LIFE. Sharma Schacknow

4. CALLUM’S STORY. Carole Woodley

5. THE IRISH TURF WAS LIKE A WARM BLANKET. Bunny Jones

6. QUE SERA, SERA. Ann Puckett

7. WHEN WOULD I HAVE TIME TO BREATHE? Becky Coira

8. LIFE BY MACK TRUCK. Jess Harboro

9. WE’LL GET ON WITH THE REST OF OUR LIVES. Ann Patton

10. HE WAS FOCUSED ON SEX, I ON MARRIAGE. Kelly Duffy

11. CATAPULTED INTO A NEW LIFE. Claudia Krex Glickman

12. PASSIONATE ABOUT NATURE. Pamela Hurwitz

13. MY TENNIS BUSINESS OR MY HUSBAND. Sally Wilks

14. FIGHT OR FLIGHT. Cindy Frye

15. I BROKE THE GLASS CEILING. Wynne Leon

16. I HAD NO FEELINGS IN MY LEGS AT ALL. Charlene Fisch

17. THE PAIN IN MY BRAIN. Lois Gaillard

18. AN INVINCIBLE SUMMER. Victoria Venisse-Back

19. WOULD I EVER SEE MY CHILD AGAIN? Carole Garcia

20. DIVINE INTERVENTION. Anna Gannon

21. MY LIBRARY. Debbie Edelstein

22. I MAKE MY OWN MONEY NOW. Lisa Rose

23. ASTROLOGY MAKES SENSE TO ME. Maureen Ambrose

24. BRUNO AND THE WIFE OF BRUNO. Lainey Azarian

25. I’M DOING EXACTLY WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING. Judy Merwill

26. THE TAROT CARD READING. Lynn Delaney

27. NO MATTER WHICH WAY I TURNED, THERE I WAS. Pat Tretout

28. THE NETBALL LEAGUE. Thelma Manning

29. I SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED MY INSTINCTS. Cathy Lockwood

30. THE TURNING POINTE. Jeanine Chamberlain

31. NO ONE CAN CALL ME A VEGETABLE NOW. Maggie McGuire

32. MY SOJOURN TO MY TRAIL OF DREAMS. Fran Sadoff-le Bow

33. FINDING MY FATHER. Elaine R.Altman Corbin

34. MY DRUG ADDICT DAUGHTER. Dana Johnson

35. THE DAVID. Cookie Govrin

36. HE DIED IN MY ARMS. Sandra Allen

37. THE SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY. Marianne Bracchi

38. TENNIS HAS FORMED MY LIFE. Trish Falkner

39. I WENT TO ISRAEL TO FIND MYSELF. Helene Weingarten

40. THE MOON TAVERN. Janyce Piwovar

41. LIVING WITH STARS AND STRIPES. Renate Finnie.

42. I THOUGHT I WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING. Julia Macdonald.

43. MY MIND, MY BEST FRIEND. Linda Jervis

APPENDIX

In loving memory of Ann Puckett, Cindy Frye

and Claudia Krex Glickman, all of whom have died shortly after this book’s publication. They are greatly missed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A huge thank you to Pat Tretout, who has been my mentor and friend for the past fifteen years. We have burned the midnight oil many a time and I’m grateful for all her wisdom and intelligent guidance.

To my dear friend, Pamela Hurwitz, who has always supported my endeavors and who delighted me when she came up with the idea of the title; Ladies that Rock.

To my sister Victoria Venisse-Back, who, unbeknownst to her, originally inspired me to start collecting these mini-memoirs when she sent me a photograph of herself as a matron at an English boy’s boarding school. There she was sitting between fifty young boisterous school boys, a rock amidst a churning sea.

To Lois Gaillard, Claudia Krex-Glickman and Ronnie Stein for giving me their opinions and ideas and active encouragement for all of which I am truly grateful.

To all the contributors of this first book, be they in America or England, for being so enthusiastic and trusting me with their life stories.

To my darling husband Jack for never interfering or giving his opinion, knowing that in order for me to get this book done I’d need a lot of time on my own.

And lastly, to my three children Richard, James and Josephine and their wonderful families. I am so proud of you and I love you all dearly.

—

INTRODUCTION

Do you remember that time in your life when things took a dramatic turn for the better or worse? Or have friends ever told you that your story is so interesting you should write it down in a book? Ladies that Rock is such a book. I have been fortunate to find many admirable women who on looking back recognize the turning points in their lives, ones that have made them who they are today.

My own story was the catalyst for this book. How can I forget the exact moment that started the chain of events taking me from being a financially struggling, single mother of three young children teaching thirty-two fitness classes a week, transforming, out of necessity and determination, into a business woman who travelled to every corner of the globe, training thousands of women to run their own skincare and cosmetic businesses.

Evolving out of my life’s interest in supporting women’s successes, be they physical or financial, comes this compilation of real-life, sometimes gritty narratives, Ladies that Rock.

1. MOTHERS AREN’T ALWAYS RIGHT. Susan Shanahan

Even today I can hear my mother’s voice saying, Make sure you look after your husband; his needs should always come first. So when I married for the second time, with her words still ringing in my head, I gave up my job in advertising.

Hoping my mother was right, after all she’d lived with the same man all her life, I concentrated on adapting to my new husband’s ideas of how life should be lived. So when he suggested I should have breast implants I went ahead with that idea too. Fine, I thought, if it made him happy, then I’d be happy.

That wasn’t all. Every two or three years for the next twenty years, Bob would come home with a bunch of flowers and a bottle of champagne telling me he’d found a new job in a different city in a different state. My mother’s words always came back to haunt me. I knew it was my duty to tough it out and support him. His needs came first.

For a period we lived in Hawaii. That’s when I began getting interested in drawing. When I signed up for an art class, the first time I saw that what I’d drawn actually resembled what I was trying to copy I felt a great surge of achievement. Professor Lee, in Honolulu, stressed the importance of drawing what you see and taught me about the importance of composition, which involved the rule of thirds and patterns. Taking his class was a pivotal point in my life. I practiced contour drawing, drawing live models, interpreting and emulating other artists. That was when I suddenly felt a stirring inside, a kind of excitement I’ve never felt before. I began noticing every nuance of the world around me. I felt seduced by the dappled light and the reflections of birds splashing in ponds; I loved watching flowers open their hearts for the birds and insects to feast on their pollen. It seemed the whole world had opened up before my eyes, and I could practically feel myself drinking in everything my eyes focused on. The relationships between life, art, and my drawings all started coming together from a deep place within me that till then had been untapped. I couldn’t walk down the street without first noticing the lighting, angles and design elements, from which I’d construct my own visual drawing and laying out of the composition. I was hooked!

One day, I was given the opportunity to take a trip to Australia with a friend. Needless to say, I went, and once there, with my point and shoot camera, I took hundreds of photos. Every time I pushed the shutter button, I realized somewhere along the way I’d acquired a visual eye. By now, the techniques I’d learned in art classes in Hawaii were coming through the camera lens. I could see them! My passion for photography made me want to capture those split-second, every day spontaneous moments, not just for memories but because they fed my soul and gave me a great feeling inside. I bought many books on aperture, shutter speed, light, you name it, and when I left the house each morning, I photographed everything I saw. I was living and breathing photography. I was happy; I’d found something that gave me so much pleasure.

But in the real world, things were not going as well as I’d hoped. I began to realize that at the end of the day, I dreaded going back home, especially when sunset was the most beautiful time to shoot; Bob’s dinner time. He was unhappy with his job again and resented my upbeat attitude. If I wasn’t there when he came home, when I did come in he’d punish me by flying into a rage or refusing to speak with me.

We never had makeup sex like some couples do. Rarely did we address the issue. After a big argument, we’d just go on to the next day and pretend that nothing had happened. I suppose the fear of leaving him was crippling, and I didn’t want to live without a job, insurance, and all those things that made me feel secure. Up until now I’d conformed to his wishes and because I hadn’t developed my own life I’d become completely dependent on him.

But now, something had started to shift. In photography, I’d found something that had awakened a passion I hadn’t realized had been lying dormant in me. Deciding that I wanted to accelerate my learning, I found a professional to teach me how to catalog my images, and in teaching me, she also shared many of her creative methods. So now, I was taking pictures, shooting raw and developing all my shots with the special software program she’d shown me how to use. Obviously, learning all of this was like learning a foreign language. One day because I hadn’t consulted with him first, when I purchased a used lens, Bob was more than annoyed with me. That was when I realized he wanted to control and confine this part of my life too.

In the past, if I’d seen potential for a new job or career, he’d put obstacles in my way, and I’d finally begun to think he hated the idea of me working. But then I realized he feared if I got too independent, I’d leave him. For myself, I couldn’t imagine how to fix this problem nor did I realize I was slowly slipping away from him. My mother’s dictum, Make sure you always look after your husband; his needs come first died slowly. The more he pushed, the more I resisted. Like the symbolic Lotus Flower that waits until it’s ready before it starts to open as my outer life disintegrated, my inner life opened and began to bloom. Something wonderful was happening; as I aged and matured, I realized the clock was ticking and if I was to honor my deeper calling, I had to make the most of every moment It had all started with my agonizing and almost desperate desire to find my path or my true calling. It took my art to show me I needed to go within to find my truths, which were in my soul. Through photography I became nurtured and fed like never before. It was as if I was given a special vision to see inside the soul of Mother Nature which, in return, was looking back at me.

Bob and I live apart now. I’d found my authenticity through my photography and finally living on my own terms had my breast implants taken out. At sixty two, my life is just beginning.

—

2. THE BEST DAY… THEN THE WORST Diane Forlenza

Soon it was to be the day we’d been planning for months… longer than that really if I count the many dreams I’d had of my daughter’s wedding day even before she was old enough to walk. The wedding was to be held on a private yacht on the Hudson River on a Sunday afternoon in September. Our family members and friends had all accepted our invitations and several of them were arriving from out-of-state with plans to spend the early fall weekend enjoying the local sites and visiting with family.

The day