The railroad was in my blood before I ever knew it!  My father Joseph worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Cresson, Pennsylvania in 1943 before being inducted into the army in December 1943.  My mother also has a brother Stanley who worked for the same railroad which later turned into Penn Central which was the railroad he retired from.

I met my Husband Pat when I was 4 years old.  He was my “big” brother’s buddy, but as we all know little sisters are a pain!  Little did I know 34 years later that I would accept his proposal and marry him?  Pat has worked for Penn Central which turned into Conrail which was split up into the CSX and Norfolk Southern where he currently works.  He has 41 years with the railroad and comes from a family of many uncles and cousins of which work for the railroad. Pat is also very involved with the union.  He was a General Chairman with the UTU when he worked with Conrail and is now the Local Chairman for Division 607 in Cleveland with the BLET.  He was a Delegate in 2001, 2006 and 2010. 

I learned very fast when we were married in 1994 that railroad life was like being a widow.  Here I was with two step children Lindsey and Philip, while Pat spent over half our life on the road going to Buffalo at all times of the day and night.  The 2 hour calls were bad enough but did they have to come at 2am, 4am (well you know) when most people are sleeping and get up for work from 8 to 5?  It took a bit of getting used to along with the disappointment during the holidays when he was 6 out on the road board and all of the sudden he had to take a trip.  Almost like being single again!

I became involved with the GIA when Sereena Hogan our National 1^st Vice President asked me to join in on a meeting with the ladies.  I accepted and here I am!  I became a MAL member in 2002 and was the EUMA Delegate at the 2006 convention where I was nominated and elected by the delegates to be the National Chaplain.  I had huge shoes to fill as I was replacing Mary Anna Mullins who did an excellent job as our previous Chaplain.

Now that my term is finished I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to serve as your National Chaplain for the term 2006 – 2010.  I enjoyed the convention and I hope that I filled at least half of Mary Anna’s shoes.

Now that the 2010 convention has passed, I wish to thank the Delegates for electing me to serve the next 8 years as your National Secretary.  I know that I have some pretty big shoes to fill as Anita Caruso had previously held this position, and has now moved up to be our National President.  We have a lot of work to do and a goal to talk up the Auxiliary everywhere we go until members and their wives get sick of hearing about us and join us!   Our Auxiliary will be only as good as we make it!  Remember ladies, if you ask someone to join all they can do is say yes or no, but if you don’t ask you will never know!   With this in mind let’s talk, talk, talk!