Rose Ellen Hunt:

In June 1961 I married Joseph G. Nowlan, Jr. We have three children, Kathleen, Ronald and Warren, who blessed us with five granddaughters and three grandsons and we also have two great-granddaughters.

I worked in the banking industry for 27 years. In 1998 the bank was bought by a larger bank and I was forced to retire because they abolished my department. I then worked for an insurance company selling long-term care insurance for five years until 2003 and I am now happily retired.

I enjoy reading, solving cross work puzzles, line dancing and playing on my Wii as well as computer games.

We have an African Gray Parrot named Pepper who is over 35 years old and we have owned him for 30 years. His vocabulary is unbelievable and he keeps us entertained. For years we raise parakeets and at one time had six parrots and about 25 birds in our aviary. It was a lot of work and we enjoyed it but now only have Pepper.

Joe and I travel in our Holiday Rambler Motor Coach as often as we can. For the last six years, we have been leaving Virginia the last of December heading for Florida staying in Jacksonville for a week to visit one of our granddaughters and her family, then on to Orlando until the first of February then on down to Key West for the rest of our stay. We really enjoy traveling and hope we can continue doing so for a long time. We belong to two camping clubs that have camp outs once a month and we try to camp with them when we are not away. We have made many wonderful friends over the years from our travels.