How did you come to live and/or work in Conshohocken?

My husband Joe Beck and I bought our home in Conshohocken 24 years ago and have felt since we arrived that the grass is greenest right here in our own back yard. We have never been the least bit interested in living anywhere else. In fact, I am twice blessed because the company I work for moved to Conshohocken from Blue Bell 13 years ago and I drive to and from work in less than 10 minutes!

What do you do (career wise)?

During the day I work for Reimbursement Technologies, Inc., which is a medical billing company. My company performs the billing services for more that 500 emergency room physician practices in the continental Untied States and Hawaii. I am the Department Coordinator for the Practice Administrators who are the liaisons between our company and the physician practices we service.

In the evenings I write.

What are you involved in outside of work?

Writing takes up a great deal of my free time. I began writing in earnest about twenty years ago. The first ten years were very slow going, but over the last ten years I’ve enjoyed some success. Currently I have more than fifty creative non-fiction stories published. Chicken Soup for the Soul has published twenty of my stories in various volumes over the last ten years. Chicken Soup for the Soul’s 20th Anniversary Anthology is one of their most recent publications and I was lucky enough to have them include my story “A Match Made in Heaven” which is about one of the first Chicken Soup stories I ever read, and how that story changed my life. When I read “Tea for Two” I was so moved by how much it reminded me of my mother and I, I contacted the author Terri Elders and we have been good friends ever since. Though 3,000 miles separate us, we correspond on a daily basis and we write for several of the same publications. All this from reading just one Chicken Soup story, that just happened to change my life.

What do you love most about Conshohocken?

I love that once a child accidentally broke one of our windows when we were not home and his mother taped a note to our front door explaining what happened and offering to pay for the damage. Those are the kind of neighbors we have. I love that I can go to any one of several fantastic restaurants, the drug store, church, the Conshohocken bakery, the post office, my dentist, my doctor and my very favorite spot – the LIBRARY without ever having to pick up my car keys. The best of everything is right at our fingertips in Conshohocken and I walk mostly everywhere I want to go. In Conshohocken I enjoy the same kind of small town coziness I knew as a child growing up in Mt. Airy. The Fun Fest, Soap Box Derby, and the annual 4th of July are great too but nothing beats the Conshohocken hometown spirit like the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Rain or shine you can count on me being at the corner of 3rd and Fayette from start to finish to enjoy every band, float and dance group.

What are your favorite places in Conshohocken?

Well, at the top of my list is the Conshohocken Library. What a wonderful place for children and adults alike. The staff is truly dedicated to engage children in reading and exploring through books, and that is a most important endeavor. They don’t stop at books though! Computers are available, and DVD’s can be rented, books on tape, and all manner of reading programs and craft classes for children are available at the Conshohocken Library. After that, you might find me in any one of our fabulous restaurants but I’d be hard pressed to tell you which one because I LOVE them all. The only one I haven’t tried yet is Southern Cross but that’s next on my list. I’m a good cook but a better eater! Conshohocken is a foodie’s heaven on Earth.