Meet Jane & Tony from Massachusetts

Jane is of Irish heritage. She grew up in Delaware and is the youngest of four children. Tony was born in downstate Illinois and raised in the mountains of Idaho. He has one younger sister. At a young age, Jane’s teachers identified her as a leader and a rebel. In her senior year, Jane organized a skip day. She said, “The plan for the day was for our small group of participating students to head into downtown. It was supposed to be a sunny day. We were going to sit by a fountain, bask in the sun, and work on our tans. Unfortunately, on that day, it was raining. Instead, we decided to head to the local courthouse and then, proceeded to spend the day in a courtroom, witnessing a murder trial. The experience was fascinating and although we all learned a lot, we still got in trouble.” Once, Jane even planned an event on Earth Day in which students rode their bikes to school! Tony joined the Coast Guard as soon as he graduated from high school. He turned 18 in Boot Camp. He served 5 years on two ships. His first deployment was to Alaska where he served on an ice breaker. During his service, he went to radio school and learned Morse Code. He then served two years in Hawaii. He said, “I grew up being a Boy Scout. When I graduated from high school, I couldn’t imagine anything else for my life other than spending a portion of it serving our country.” The couple met 15 years ago when they were working at the same middle school as sixth grade teachers. They love spending time together in the great outdoors. Tony retired 8 years ago. He is an avid hunter and has hunted all over the country. He also has a camp on Lake Champlain. Jane just retired this past June. She has traveled the world and enjoys visiting friends in other countries. She just got back from visiting a friend in Thailand that she hasn’t seen in 32 years. Although Jane and Tony are not legally married, they are a loving, long-term committed couple. They refer to each other as “life partners”. Tony said, “My favorite thing about Jane is that she can communicate things and move on. She does not hold a grudge and she’s incredibly forgiving.” Jane said “My favorite thing about Tony is his character. He has a great sense of humor. I was attracted to his teaching style with students. He made them think in ways that encouraged and challenged them. He did so in a fun way.” The one thing Tony wants to tell the world is, “You are going to be faced with some tough decisions throughout your life. Some of those decisions will change the trajectory of your life. You can’t wallow and hesitate in making decisions. You just have to make a decision and follow through with it. In the end, everything will work out.” The one thing Jane wants to tell the world is, “Once while traveling in Thailand, I had a good friend’s grandmother sit me down and tell me how proud she was of me for traveling and learning about other cultures. Her granddaughter translated. She said, “It is not going to be governments that make the difference to change the world for the better. It’s going to be the individuals who are getting out there and conversing with each other.” Thank you for visiting!