Phyllis Thompson:  

Where I Am Now in Life: I am now retired, teaching part time (on line courses from home) and take small groups to Italy each year. Where I Have Been: It is a pleasure to have an opportunity to share my life, thoughts and accomplishments with you. I was born in a small southern Wisconsin city, Beloit. My rather young, but old-fashioned Italian grandparents raised me in a typical 1940’s Italian-American home. The first language in our home was Italian, in fact my grandfather, Paul Parrinello, never spoke English fluently all of his life. He and my grandmother, Josephine came to the U.S. through Ellis Island in the early 1900’s to escape the then poor Sicilian lifestyle and seek the American dream, so sought after by so many immigrants. My grandfather worked in the local foundry and my grandmother was a homemaker extraordinaire. She sewed all my clothes, canned fruits and vegetables, cooked everything from scratch and even made lampshades and upholstered furniture. Suffice it to say that there was never a commercial canned product in the pantry, except maybe some Italian canned tuna and anchovies. I was educated at both public and Catholic schools in Beloit. When I graduated from Beloit Catholic High at the age of 17, I left Beloit to attend school at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, IL, a southern suburb of Chicago. It was there I was educated to be a radiation therapist and began my 30-year career in radiation oncology. Shortly after I graduated from my educational program, I met my soon to be husband, William Thompson. I was immediately charmed by his serious, yet twinkling blue eyes and our common interests and goals in life. We have been married for 37 years this fall and are blessed with two children, a son Daniel, affectionately know as ‘Augie’ and a daughter, Amanda who recently married a wonderful...Expand for more