Shirley Mayhew
I retired from 20 years of teaching in 1986, which means that I have been retired longer that I taught.
I too had an epiphany about “recording the moment” instead of “being in it.”
In 1965 I had lived for 21 years in Crestwood, N.Y., and 18 years on Martha’s Vineyard. I knew very little about the rest of the world.
For over 50 years I lived on the edge of Look’s Pond, off Music street in West Tisbury. In the mid 1660s only the Tiasquam River ran through the valley on its way to Tisbury Great Pond.
I married my husband more than 60 years ago for better or for worse — but not for fishing. There have been better years and worse years, but not many fishing years for me.
For almost a third of my life I was a world traveler. I kept a journal from every trip I took and made an album of all the places I went. I visited over 25 countries, and I tried to bring home a souvenir from each — everything from a Japanese yukata to a stone found on the Great Wall of China. I have a bow and arrows I bought from a Sanjo boy in Tanzania, sand from the Sahara and an Alpaca blanket from Peru. A small rug from Morocco is on my bedroom floor and I drink my morning coffee from a small mug I bought in Wales.