Women Once Wild make contribution to Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Adoption fees for Women Once Wild who have new homes have now contributed $925 to Cure Alzheimer's Fund, a charitable organization focused on funding "research with the highest probability of preventing, slowing, or reversing Alzheimer’s disease".   For more info, see http://www.curealz.org/.

Thanks to all the new "parents" of Women Once Wild!

Robineeta (is adopted)

A woman of letters she has traveled the world lecturing on the cultural significance of dolls and toys.  Lest you think that a dull topic, note that her studies have required journeys to isolated tribes on the Amazon and in New Guinea.   Along with lecturing, she regularly loans her vast collection of goddess statues to museums.  When these loans are in Europe, they give her the perfect excuse to go base jumping in the Alps.

PJH 2016

Xeena (is adopted)

Of course she loved the television show with her namesake!  And, since she loves masquerade parties, each year for her birthday she dresses in her favorite warrior princess costume and leads a hearty band of friends through the New Jersey countryside in search of hidden gems provided by clients of her lapidary equipment business.  Outside of work and costumes, she loves parasailing, zip lining, and traveling in a vintage rail car.

PJH 2016

Amaranth

Even the doctor was surprised when she emerged at birth with bright pink hair, thus her exotic name.  Despite predictions to the contrary, her hair never changed color, nor is it going gray as she moves through her sixth decade. She decided early on that being easy to spot in a crowd was an advantage, and parlayed that into a successful career as a conflict correspondent.  In one encounter, her hair color convinced potential captors to release her and her crew, as there would have been no way to disguise her as they tried to escape their NATO pursuers.   Now, quietly retired in the wilds of Alaska, she enjoys going almost unnoticed when she dons a nondescript watch cap and zips along on her all terrain vehicle.

PJH 2016

Sadzi

Even her worst enemies would say that she has a sunny disposition, but they would also say that they would not like to face her in the courtroom.  In her small city divorce court, she rules with humor, dignity, grace, and a death-ray-like stare for those who attempt to mislead her.  Known in court for her light-hearted good will, when she gets on one of her favorite hiking trails, that attitude disappears with her fierce drive to achieve her goal of walking 1000 miles each year.  She is hoping to make up for her more sedentary years in law school with hiking more miles in her soon-to-occur retirement.

PJH 2016

Jaquizza

She grew up around the family’s security firm, with safes and locks as everyday playthings.  So it was no surprise to her parents when she decided to drop out of college and become a professional safe cracker.  No, not the illegal kind, but the one called on when combinations or keys are lost.  Her favorite contracts involve safes on luxury yachts, since she requires that the vessel be at sea before she begins her work.   Digital locks are reducing her work load, but she’s not worried, as many of her satisfied clients have rewarded her with items from the safes she opened. With a healthy nest egg of diamonds and stock certificates, she may just be able to acquire a small yacht of her own!

PJH 2016

Tiger-Lyl (is adopted)

Her parents named her Tigerlilly – as Clemson graduates, they loved orange! But in high school she developed a reputation for snarling a little too much and the nickname stuck.  After a brief foray as a roller derby player, she settled into vet school and now specializes in the problems of Savannah cats, a cross-breed involving African servals and domestic house cats.   Who’s the tiger now?

PJH 2016

Geneva (is adopted)

Despite being named for one of her great grandmothers, she seldom looks backward, except when it comes to mid-century modern design.  In that style, she designs tiny houses for those who can manage that lifestyle. But her own abode is a large modern tri-level, furnished in the style of Florence Knoll, including an original 2544 credenza, which she uses for storing her extensive collection of 1960’s wristwatches.

PJH 2016

Dwynwen

A champion surfer in her youth -- her name means “white wave”! --  she now spends her days collecting shells and photographing sea birds near her Ocracoke Island cottage. While she did not garner monetary prizes for her surfing skills, she did travel widely enough to buy several winning lottery tickets, which she invested wisely enough to support her leisurely life style.

PJH 2016

Chickaleeza (is adopted)

You would never know by her wild hairstyle that she is a renowned forensic accountant.  Since most of her work is behind a computer as a consultant to Interpol and Scotland Yard, she can indulge her fashion whims as she chooses.  When not unraveling criminal ledgers, she spends time traveling in Britain and Europe, riding her Brutus V9 electric touring cycle ………… in fashionable leathers, of course!

PJH 2016

Meltem

With a name that means “sea wind”, you would think that she would love the beach, but she would much rather spend time in the mountains.  Perhaps that’s influenced by the summers she spent living with her great grandmother off-the-grid on a mountainside north of Galax.  Since inheriting the cabin, she continues to spend time there, blissfully away from her hectic work life as a Washington lobbyist for the Sierra Club.

PJH 2016

Medusa (is adopted)

It’s certainly not apparent now as she enters retirement that her earliest career was that of a golf ball diver.  While unusual, it was sufficiently lucrative to support her comfortably while she built up her private investigator practice. Specializing in solving underwater mysteries, she made her real fortune by finding the wreck of a 16th century Spanish galleon.  While it was not bringing back gold from the New World, it did contain enough uncut emeralds to fund her lifestyle for years to come.

PJH 2016

Hildegarde (is adopted)

She may look sweet and meek, but cross anyone in her close circle of friends and family and you will experience wrath like that of her Viking ancestors.  Trained in fencing and knife throwing, she is a vicious opponent on the battleground. Luckily she has only been tested a few times, always in urban settings against unfortunately unworthy opponents.  Each time she came away unscathed, ready to ease back into her role of kindergarten teacher.  Huzzah!

PJH 2016

Corliss (is adopted)

As evidenced by her name, someone in her lineage had invented the steam engine that supplied power for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.   For Corliss, steam was just the nuisance that caused her hair to curl, but she loved numbers and calculations as much as that long-ago ancestor.   She funded her college years doing statistical analysis for the university, eventually obtaining a doctorate in bio-statistics and a job researching survivability in snake bite victims. Luckily, that did not require that she handle (or even see) snakes, as a childhood encounter left her with a deathly fear of anything slithery.

PJH 2016

Fara (is adopted)

She grew up on the road, daughter of an Air Force mom and an internet developer dad.  So no one was surprised when she bought an RV with her college graduation money and began a cross-country sojourn to find herself. Her friends thought she would always have “the world on a string”, but 10 years and 200,000 miles later, she settled into a little North Carolina coastal town and started a digital art business with the photos from her travels.  She never imagined living in one place for more than a year, but her fisherman partner/lover/best friend has - so far - kept her happily anchored for five years …. and counting…

Polaris (is adopted)

Thank goodness that few people know that she is named for the star at the tip of the tail of the Little Bear constellation. She always imagined that her grandfather – the amateur astronomer – named her, probably influenced by her being the youngest of 8 and names getting harder to find.  If her comedic mystery-writing best friend thought he could get away with teasing her about being a “tail wagger”, he would try, but her quick temper and jujitsu black belt dampens his jesting – most days!   Trained as a cinematic cosmetologist with a specialization in alien life form make-up, her work life revolves around the latest sci-fi thriller, taking her to remote places that look like (and sometimes smell like) alien planets.

(PJH 2016)

Vanessa

Her friends thought her training as a lepidopterist was frivolous until she discovered, with the help of a friendly textile chemist, that butterfly wings could be synthesized to create an almost invisible, stronger-than-Kevlar fabric.   The royalties from this discovery enabled her to get her pilot’s license, buy a Twin Cessna, and travel the world photographing butterflies….. and tasting local varieties of gin.

(a PJH story)

Zaryna (is adopted)

You might think her tame, given her career as a designer of Barbie costumes, but outside of work, she loves to free climb the cliffs around her Colorado home.   Her career came about as she was recovering from injuries after falling 50 feet in one of her earliest untethered jaunts.  While lying in bed, she started to envision sports-oriented costumes for the dolls she had loved as a child.  The sketches she sent to Mattel garnered her a lifetime spot in the hearts of many little girls who were tired of too many poufy sleeves and wide patent leather belts.

(a PJH story)

Deirdre-Anne

She is still famous for asking “Have we gone on like this long enough?” whenever the conversation started to be boring to her.   Oftentimes, it was just the right question to cause the dialogue to go off in a more interesting direction.   But, it didn’t work the night she asked it of the father of her soon-to-be groom.  In fact, things went so badly from there that the cathedral wedding was never conducted. Luckily for her, eloping was just a grand idea, and they lived happily – albeit without his family – for a good long while.   Now she remembers those good days while hoping that she lives long enough to meet an alien from another planet.  After all, whenever she needed to change the topic of conversation, she could always count on wishing for aliens to create lively repartee.

(a PJH story)

Jovita (is adopted)

When your mother is a Latin scholar who waited until age 40 to have a child, it’s not surprising that your name is a Latin word for “Happy”.   Luckily for all involved, her nature matched her name.   Always smiling, albeit sometimes with her mouth but not her eyes, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a professor of Greek mythology.  Once retired she moved to the island of Milos where she met a widowed restaurateur and now spends her days welcoming the occasional guest and forging custom daggers in her backyard blacksmith's shop.

(a PJH story)