Women who inspire me

I think it's time to start a written list of people who have inspired me in some way during my lifetime.

Top of the list is my newest inspiration, Facebook friend Beth Cardinal. Beth has taken good care of herself throughout her life, then when she retired she got serious about bodybuilding. Click here and scroll through the page to see several pictures of Beth at the Canadian Natural National Championships 2008.

Miss Beth Parker was my typing teacher in high school. A funny looking woman and a diehard Yankee fan, she inspired me to love typing and use it throughout my life in my work and personal writings. She also taught us finger-limbering exercises that I continue to use these many decades later, not to facilitate easier typing but to loosen up slightly arthritic fingers.

Melissa Murray inspired me even before tragedy struck her family. Her gentleness and determination have remained constant. When things get tough, I think of Melissa and realize I have no idea what tough is. Melissa and her husband Rich also have set the bar for love and caring even after many years of marriage.

Mary Lu Walker never ceases to amaze me. As if raising eight children wasn't enough, when she reached her fifties she began writing songs for kids. She's sung for and with children around the world and still brings her guitar and her music into the local library as a volunteer during children's storyhours. In 2008 Mary Lu was inducted into the Steuben County NY Hall of Fame.

Grace Rosettie walks every day. A retired kindergarten teacher with five children, Grace has been known to hike in the mountains (such as the Austrian, Swiss and Italian Alps). She's tiny and the biggest part of her is her contagious smile. If one of her many grandchildren is in a sporting event, she's there to cheer him or her on. Volunteering is also a big part of her life.

Great-Aunt Alice was about 50 years old when I was born in 1945. Except for a few wrinkles, she never changed. I swear! Always the shirtwaist dresses, always the clip-on earrings and pearl-like necklaces, always the same, every-hair-in-place 'do. Aunt Alice did everything on today's "No-list" and lived to the age of 108. The No's? White bread, white sugar, red meats, no exercise beyond walking here and there. No, she never walked... she sprinted! As a teenager, I decided to live till I'm 103, to live well, and Aunt Alice has always been my inspiration to hang on to that aspiration.

The living women on this list range from late 40s (or is it early 50s) to over 80. We're definitely not only getting older, we're getting a whole lot better.