How do you like to spend your free time?

With family. Duane and I have been married for 42 years, and our daughter Heather has two girls, Caroline Palmer (3), and Blakely Reese (6). Our son Kevin lives with us and is a lineman for C-Phase, commuting every day to Fayetteville with his supervisor. He spent 21 days in Western NC helping after Helene. Heather is a nurse and has a busy schedule, which gives us the opportunity to watch the girls as much as we can, which is our favorite thing in the entire world. They really keep us on our toes!

They love to go camping at Yogi Bear Jellystone Park, it’s an easy trip for a weekend for us, and Heather takes them there sometimes too. Blakely loves to go hunting with Duane (her Pop Pop) and spends a lot of her Saturdays during hunting season with him in the truck. But she’s still a girly girl too and loves to cook and bake and do crafts. Caroline and I (her Mimi) will spend Saturdays playing with dolls and just having fun. They both love the outdoors, swimming, dancing, reading, writing, coloring and drawing, and riding their bicycles, and staying at Mimi and Pop Pop’s where the spoiling is plentiful.

And you have a special place in your heart for animals?

Yes, especially for my 12-year-old dachshund, Sadie. I wanted a lap dog and boy did I get one. She is a mamma’s baby. Duane says that half an hour before I walk in the door, she starts looking for me. She goes crazy when I come home, and then she is glued to me, going everywhere I go, and as soon as I sit down, she’s on my lap. We also have Colt, my son’s 7-year-old black lab who is a fierce protector and has quite a bark! I can’t stand to see any animal being mistreated – they don’t ask for much and give us so much in return. If I’d win the lottery I’d open an animal refuge, and take in all the ones nobody wanted, especially the elderly ones.