What's Next

From the Bahamas to Boston

To figure out what’s next for me, we have to begin with how it started. At 22 years of age, I was hired by CBS News to assist Boston Bureau Chief, Anthony Streuli with the 1988 NH Presidential Primary coverage. I was beyond excited! Two weeks in to my first job in television, Tony died unexpectedly of a heart attack at only 43 years of age. I was sent to knock on the door of his hotel room when he didn’t show up for work one morning. What followed left me completely shaken. Still, the work didn’t stop. Everyone stepped up, and somehow, we carried on.

Following the Primary, I continued to work for CBS News at the Boston Bureau while the network looked for a replacement and eventually I was offered a position at “Black Rock” in New York. Believe it or not, I turned down the job, really for two reasons. Number one and the most important, I had recently met my now husband of 35 years. Secondly, I was a Canadian citizen at the time and still working on securing my Green Card.

I was actually born in Freeport, Bahamas to a British father who was working for a British / Bahamian Company at the time. Al Farmer or “Big Al” as he was called, attended McGill University in Montreal where he met and later eloped with my mother. They returned to Canada when I was four-years-old, and I am still proud of my Canadian heritage, while I am also proud to be a naturalized Bahamian. As fate would have it, my husband and I started a business based in the Bahamas, but that’s a story for another time.

Fast forward, I receive permanent residency and begin working for the CBS affiliate in Boston, WHDH-TV. I worked in production, learned all facets of the business and met some of my closest and now oldest and dearest friends. I worked with many talented reporters, producers, editors and photographers. Although the work was stressful, it was also exhilarating. We covered every breaking news story, from Boston’s racially charged Charles Stuart case, to another racially divided saga, the OJ Simpson trial; and 24-hour coverage during the Gulf War when my 12-hour shift began at 3:00 am.

The highlight of my broadcast news career was covering the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway where we were sent to follow the Nancy Kerrigan - Tanya Harding story. For those of you unfamiliar with these two U.S. women’s figure skaters, look them up - it’s a fascinating and unbelievable story.

Many stories later, and after prioritizing my career for over a decade, our life as we knew it changed forever and for better when we decided to have children. Fortunately, three kids later, I gradually segued into a career in public relations, which has much more forgiving hours. I was lucky enough to be able to work part-time, allowing for less paid daycare and more time with our kids. The experience has been priceless!

Raising our three children has been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. They are all amazing, well adjusted, successful, and most importantly kind and thoughtful adults. I think that’s a worthy contribution to this unsettled world, don’t you?

Another major transition followed: after 26 years, and all of our children successfully graduated college, entered the workforce and found homes of their own: we sold our family home, rented for a short time, and then moved again. For nearly six months, I didn’t “work outside the home,” which led me to wonder, was I unofficially retired? Not quite, I decided.

Fortunately, I’m now immersed in meaningful projects, working alongside people I genuinely like and admire, something that feels especially important at this stage of my life. Am I happy, absolutely, but do I still wonder “what’s next,” absolutely! So I’ve decided to write about my journey in the hope of finding out.

What is it that I really want to do when I grow up? Stay tuned…