A PURPLE PANTSUIT: A LIFETIME OF BREAKING THE RULES This is a story of a woman coming to grips with her past life. She made a fateful decision when she was 23 that would change the course of her life. This singular decision was followed by many more challenging events that continued to drastically alter her journey. She reveals her unusual upbringing in the conservative 30’s and 40’s, her efforts to accommodate herself through the transformative upheavals of the 60’s and 70’s, and the path she made for herself on the way to The Purple Pantsuit. This book was a painful undertaking for the author. Painful because she not only revealed deeply held secrets, but ultimately, she had to judge herself. From this struggle a new woman emerged, one at peace with all of her past choices. At the onset of this endeavor she was writing for her friends and family only. They had long requested to understand the whys of her decisions throughout her life. Everything changed during the Me Too movement, culminating in the Kavanaugh hearings. She knew that it was time to share her story with the world. Secrets hidden from even herself began to emerge. Shame and secrets hold hands. She was going to rid herself of both. There has been confusion about what genre this is. It became a lengthy memoir, maybe three or four. Even the author isn’t sure what this is and maybe that doesn’t matter. All she can say is that it is a lifetime of memories of how she was raised and who she became, again and again, as a daughter, sister, friend, wife, teacher, counselor, mother, and activist. Follow her on her journey, from her year in kindergarten, when she first realized she was different from the other girls, through making and breaking vows, changing intrinsic personal beliefs, challenging outdated rules for teachers and counselors, adopting an older child as a single parent to moving to a life off of the grid in retirement in a rural area of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Search deeply. Take on the message of the purple pantsuit, believe in yourself and follow your heart.