I met my husband when I was just 14 at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in 1975, and it was love at first sight for me! He was a worldly 26, so I wasn't a romantic prospect, but that didn't keep me from dreaming.

We'd both been cast in Our Town, and we met at the first rehearsal. In spite of our ages, we had mutual friends and a similar sense of humor. Russel, who freelanced as a photographer, took my first headshots, but he discovered his true calling when he did an Our Town poster with portraits of all the cast members. Soon he was doing nearly all the Globe's theatre posters and other theatres' posters, too.

Russel and I kept in touch over the years, and in 1983 when I moved back to my hometown from New York City, we began to date. (I was over 21 by then!) We went our separate ways againme with my heart brokenso I moved back to NYC to write and work in theatre, while he pursued his fine art career along with his illustration business.

At long last, in 1989, our timing was right. I visited San Diego over the holidays and called Russel the first week of January. The next day we met for lunch in Old Town and talked for four hours. He took my brother and me out sailing in the bay the next day and afterwards we sat and talked and talked. And Russel proposed that night!

Needless to say I accepted, and we were married a few months later. We took a nearly three-year "honeymoon" on our 26-foot sailboat in Mexico (sort of a working vacation, as I was writing and he was painting), and fell more in love with every mileand every year. We lived on that boat until 2003, and just celebrated our 19th anniversary on our new 35-foot boat, and I can't imagine a better life partner. Which just shows that sometimes we can get what we know we wantif we're willing to wait for it!

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