I was born on the cusp of WWII and spent my time in the company of adults, learning love, compassion and grace.

After the war we moved to Independence, Missouri, where history was important, but Harry Truman was more interesting, and the politics endlessly fascinating.

To complete my education I went east to Radcliffe College, where I was a fish out of water in a whole new culture and studied Renaissance history.

Married to William Ewing, we moved to Ethiopia for 3-1/2 years. Living where most people existed without running water or sewerage and where my best was to speak a sort of pidgin, was good, difficult, and revealing. The important thing was to learn manners; simple eating protocols and the more complex ways people related by age, wealth, ancestry and language group.

Returning to Philadelphia, I first met East Mt. Airy Neighbors(EMAN) and learned even more from Eversley Vaughan, and worked in the Home and School Association when "integration" was the focus of the school district. EMAN elected me to the Federal Health Planning Agency which was the beginning of organized "user" interface with health providers. (Machiavelli was useful.) I also helped form the Mt. Airy Village Development Corporation (Now Mt. Airy*USA) and sat on that board for 26 years, where my best contribution was to convince the postal service to locate in our new Phebe Commons Building.

The neighborhood settled to a regular growth cycle, and I devoted more attention to the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) first in the anti-Vietnam war effort, and then in the Sanctuary Movement to give shelter to refugees from America-funded terror in Central America.

A few years later, FUMCOG became a Reconciling Congregation, accepting the right of all people, without reference to their sexual orientation, to be full participants in the life and leadership of the whole Church.

This is a battle not yet won, and my efforts to share love, compassion and grace, to understand the manners and protocols of my opponents, and to integrate the United Methodist Church into a tolerant, productive body will have to continue yet awhile. But the company is good, I have many people to learn from, and hope springs eternal.