When I was very little, I wanted to work at a zoo. I loved animals and I still do. When I was eight, I had a dream of being a pianist and performing at Carnegie Hall.

My mother was my piano teacher and she told me when I was about ten that I wasn’t very good. I believed her, so I stopped playing piano, until years later. In high school, I was focused solely on surviving a difficult home environment, so there really wasn’t room to dream. I excelled in art and music, but struggled in many academic subjects. I was afraid I would not get into college, my ticket to a new life.

In college, my parents picked my major, sociology. I did well in those classes, but I didn’t really love it. I came to realize that I had grown up taking care of others, and making a career of it was maybe not best for me. I took piano lessons again and I had this great music professor. She wanted to create a specialized music major for me in Concert Management, but my parents forbid it. They were paying for my education, and I did not have the energy to fight that battle. I got my degree in Sociology.

After college, I worked in nursing homes as a recreation therapist, where I was able to play piano and my clarinet and do singalongs. I knit the whole thing together in my mind. I was able to put my talents to good use. It was rewarding, but there was a time I just felt like there’s something more for me. By then, I had my kids and I was a stay-at-home mom.

I taught theater and art and I worked at the Essex Steam Train, playing a character on trips to the North Pole. We would sing and perform.

I had visited the Mark Twain House when I was a little girl. I just always loved the house and I thought, “I wonder if they’re hiring,” and I saw this job doing living history and I thought that would be perfect — I love the Mark Twain House and I have this acting background.

I am really fond of portraying Livy Clemens. She was a great lady and I try to just do her justice. I give it my all every time I’m there. I want everyone to have the most special experience that they can.

It feels like a great privilege. We’re celebrating the legacy of Mark Twain and it’s sort of almost sacred, being in their house and doing them justice. To me, it’s all about me feeling connected, and if I can tell that we’re connected, then that just brings me so much joy.

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