The big 8-0 this year.
My name is Jean Munroe.
Your other posters have led such glamorous lives that it is intimidating to add mine.
Your invitation is so generous and compelling, though, that I want to participate.
Me indulging in my inner child
Paul, my husband, and partner in crime
Jean's Son, Daughter-in-Law, and grandson.
I met glass artist Laura Pesce in a tiny town in Italy.
She has become a friend
we have met up with her three times since then,
once in Pisa when she was flying in
and we were flying out. As a child, I wanted to be an artist, my path led elsewhere.
I photobombed a Race for the Cure in Greece.
I am a 50-year survivor of breast cancer as of November 2020!
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(When he was 16 I gave him a perm and made him a Hawaiian shirt overnight, my shy son became the Magnum superstar! Unfortunately, I cannot find one with the shirt.)
After a divorce from an abusive husband, I raised a son with no financial help,
went back to college by going to night school, and then went to law school.
After ten years as a legal aid lawyer,
I went into private practice for another 24 years.
(In front of my law office about 20 years ago. I turned part of my law office into an art gallery and had shows for different artists, including glass jewelry and mirrors from Laura Pesce.)
As an attorney, I was more of a rabble-rouser.
In my practice, I encountered hundreds of battered women.
The law enforcement and legal resources were thin on the ground for these women.
I found a little-used statute providing for an order of protection
and convinced one judge to apply it.
We went from a handful of OP’s a year in our county to over a thousand
and that number continues to grow.
We now have a justice center where a victim of domestic violence
has an array of services available, from legal to housing
to support groups and more.
When I went into private practice, it seemed to me
that people were not really getting their voices heard
and that lawyers were giving them cookie-cutter remedies.
I read about mediation, took a course, and immediately started pushing it in my cases.
In 1995, our state passed mediation laws, and shortly thereafter,
we formed a statewide mediation organization.
We trained attorneys, social workers
and others in helping the parties themselves decide how
their lives would be post-divorce.
(On our honeymoon, Paul and I ate at the Botticelli in Lucca. Being American, we arrived at 7 pm. They invited us in anyway and while their family and staff ate their dinner, I played with their 18-month-old boy, Tomassi. Several years later, we returned with friends. I mentioned to the wife that two of our party had birthdays that day. At the end of the meal, the chef came to the table with a birthday cake in the form of an American flag with two candles! And showed us their newest baby girl. A treasured memory.)
My art was sporadic throughout my life,
playing out mostly in my clothing and interior decorating.
I have traveled extensively,
through 48 states and most of Europe.
Fortunately, I have a wonderful travel partner
who enjoys art museums and food as much as I do.
I am 80 now and chair of an organization
that teaches English to refugees and immigrants.
Our students have greatly enriched my life.
They lift me up.
Their hope and optimism inspire me.
Their resilience reassures me
that we can all survive
the times we are living through.
I look forward to the day when we can travel again.
Meeting you is high on my bucket list.
Thank you for your 15 years of positivity and joy.
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