ABOUT

Who was Gertrude?

She was my grandmother and although she never went to college and may not have graduated from high school, she was a very wise woman. I am now a retired registered dietitian/ nutritionist with over 35 years of work experience and realized that  a great deal of what I know about nutrition and health came from my grandmother, Gertrude. She was born in 1893 and grew up and lived most of her life in Buffalo New York.

I recently retired from dietetics I decided to start a blog about what she taught me and share some of her wisdom before it was lost. When downsizing and relocating to South Carolina, I found several things that brought back such wonderful memories from my childhood. As I went through the memorabilia, I realized I had shared her wisdom with my students but not with my two daughters. It would be a shame not to let them know what a strong, independent wise woman she was. 

I also grew up in a suburb of Buffalo and went off to college at Virginia Tech. The first time it snowed in Blacksburg, they used broom to remove the snow and I called my mother and told her that I would never live north of the Mason-Dixon line. Everything you have heard about winters in Buffalo are true!

After college I worked for the Texas and Oklahoma Extension Services and then began to teach at the college level. My resume looks like a migrant works because I was married to an officer in the military. As he would say when we were being reassigned “If they wanted me to have a wife, they would have issued me one.”  Being a dietitian  allowed me to find employment everywhere we went. And as a result, I did have some wonderful and interesting work experiences.

I was on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, California State at Los Angeles, Texas A & M, Baylor, University of South Carolina, Kansas University and at several junior colleges around the country. I loved teaching and getting to know the students. Many are still friends on Facebook. 

I hope you enjoy the blog and if you have question, do not hesitate to ask.