About Me
When I see babies, I have an urge to make them smile. In an elevator, on the bus, or in a store checkout line, if there’s a baby, I can’t resist oohing and cooing to coax a response.
I was born to be a grandma, and fortunately my older son and his wife have accommodated me with two sweet grandkids: Miss T and Little N.
I confess that what I can do for my grandkids today is a lot different from what I did for my own two boys as they were growing up. It wasn’t for lack of will; it was the lack of time.
Where Miss T used to get cute bento lunches every Friday, my boys had peanut butter and jelly or tuna salad. Where my granddaughter and I do fun projects after school, my kids spent more time entertaining themselves.
Still, we did decorate Easter eggs, make Christmas cookies, and ate home-cooked meals each night, sitting together in conversation at the dinner table. And as parents, we were present at every school event, boys chorus performance, and ice hockey match.
As in everything in life, we do the best we can.
I started my career in New York City, right from college, where I worked as the food and home furnishings editor of CO-ED magazine, a Scholastic publication for teens. Teaching comes naturally to me, so I excelled at writing lesson plans for my feature stories, although my university degree is not in education, but in fashion design. Throughout my work life, my greatest joy has been in teaching and nurturing young talent.
My career continued uninterrupted through my pregnancy and afterwards. My first child was born when I was the food and fashion editor of the Honolulu Advertiser in Hawaii. With the second, I was a freelance writer and publicist in San Francisco.
By the time my children were in preschool, I was working for a large global public relations agency, starting as an account executive and ending up as a senior vice president. The job involved late nights, lots of travel, and high stress, but between my husband Steve and me, we managed to care for our sons.
One of my career highlights is having pioneered one of the first food websites, the award-winning recipe.com, nearly 30 years ago. And more recently, I was co-founder of a dinnertime food and recipe website with my son, called Special Fork. While we no longer update it, you can still go to the site and find easy-to-prep, family-friendly recipes there.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter: @grandmasday. And let's keep in touch!