Meet the Owners

We both worked in Detroit–Rob at Michigan Bell, I at a hospital.

My stint in medicine left time for little more than sleep; sometimes, my work beeper didn’t even permit that. I was too tired to quit. At the end of an especially irksome day in 1982, I told Rob that he would have to save me from myself. The following afternoon, having returned from work at an unusually decent hour, I heard words that belong right up there with “Our boats are on their way to rescue your polar expedition.” “Pack your bags.” Rob said. “We’re moving!” That very morning, he had put in for a transfer to any place available. Little did we know that God had an enormous change in store for u and our thirteen-year-old son, Michael.

Our dream

Rob was transferred to AT&T’s corporate headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ. Just prior to our move, we traveled in the British Isles for three weeks, staying in countless bed-and-breakfasts. Without fail, Michael carted the guest books off to bed with him. Soon, he was all but cooing the names of foreign countries penned in the books, as though he were a transported chocolatier christening new sweets. Why, he thought, can’t we meet people like this in our own home? He was resolute: we had to start an inn. I gently reminded our only child that we weren’t breakfast eaters, and that I had never made a pot of coffee. Later, however, his dream became our dream; in fact, it seemed the only sensible thing left to do.

Forty Three years later, we still love operating our bed-and-breakfast. Guests often become our friends, and these friends occasionally become family. God truly rescued us from a frenzied lifestyle and placed us in one of the most beautiful river valleys in the world.

It was a real honor to be asked to become a Gatekeeper of History – 2006/2007 for Preserve America