In the fall of 1966 I attended classes in Medical Technology at SUNY Alfred. Truthfully, I was there out of my desire to be near Jim (Keller, Roy-Hart, 1965) and freedom more than to pursue higher education. It was a terrible disappointment to my parents to realize I never planned to finish my studies, especially after making the Dean's List. But the heart wants what it wants. On June 24, 1967 we married and moved to Knoxville, TN. I supported us as a secretary/receptionist while Jim earned his BSEE at UT to support us later. He graduated in August, 1970. One of his senior engineering projects was to design something, so he did, for the Hearing and Speech Dept. at UT. He took first place and was offered a job. This was the start of the rest of our lives.

New Year's Day, 1971, first son Thomas Layton was born. I had zero experience with babies but learned. Second son Jason Randall was born December 18, 1972. They were the best of buddies. We spent 10 years in Knoxville and I love it still as my first adult hometown. Jim's talents in audiology equipment design took us to Amherst, NH, in 1977. While there, we decided computers and smaller, better instruments were going to be the future. Unfortunately no one else did. In 1980 we started Micro Audiometrics Corp. in our basement. No money, two small boys, lots of hopes and loans from parents got us going. It's 26 years old now.

1985 lead us to Daytona Beach; we were there until 1999. Too hot, too crowded, too many storms. In 1996 Jim and I found 142 undeveloped acres, surrounded by a few hundred more, in remote western NC for camping. That lead to the self-contained house we designed powered by solar panels and batteries. Circumstances allowed us to move the company and half our employees/family here in 1999. We buried phone and power lines across Forest Service land, built houses, a cabin, barn, pond. We have a dog, Molly, lots of wildlife, and total peace and quiet. Murphy is at the edge of Georgia and Tennessee. It had its 15 minutes of fame when Eric Robert Rudolf (the Atlanta Olympic bomber) was captured in town a few years ago.

Jason married Monica in FL in 1995. She's the daughter I would have wanted. They have 4 sons between them: Brandon 13, Bobby 12, Sam 7, and Logan almost 3 months. Jay is President of the company, Monica is on leave at the moment. Tom is bi-polar and constantly battles, or enjoys, drugs legal or otherwise. It's tough to say, deal with, endure. But I will always love him. He is extremely good with building, tools, farming, was part of the company, but now lives quietly in TN.

Favorite experiences? Camping trips on quiet off-beaten roads (Rt. 66, Santa Fe Trail, etc.). We spent 54 days mostly alone in British Columbia and the Yukon en route to Alaska. Didn't want to go but without that trip I would never have tried life out here. Worst experience? Being chased by four Russian boar on the low side of our own property.

At 55, I realized I'd lived my life on everyone else’s terms, doing what I should, what was expected, "for better or worse." How old would I be before I got to live more for me? After lots of conflict I live peacefully alone on the third floor of our company building. Jim and I are finally friends again; we do lots together. We both still manage our areas of the business. I'm a workaholic and chocoholic. I wear jeans, shorts, T-shirts to work without leaving the building. I ride ATVs on miles of trails that I cleared. I'm happiest cutting trees, digging in dirt, on my tractor, gardening.

Robert Frost wrote ..."I took the road less traveled and that has made all the difference." That's me. See you soon.