 was 23 years old I had finished nursing school and I had finished getting my degree and at that time this is 1965 the Peace Corps was a big thing they invited you to a country and so I got the invitation and they said you've been invited to do nursing and teach nursing in Afghanistan I said okay so anyway that was the beginning and halfway around the world but I had never been in an airplane at that point in my life next thing I know I was going to Afghanistan we started a school of nursing in a small hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif Afghanistan we taught with the help of the Afghan doctors we taught 15 students and at the end of two years seven of those students went on to the cobble to the capital city to do a year of midwifery and then they came back to Mazar-e-Sharif there were seven Americans in the town and obviously we were all good friends my husband he finished his two years he came back to the United States he was teaching in the Philadelphia school system and going to Penn for his master's degree he asked me to marry him I said I think that's the right thing to do and 50 years later here we are someone contacted him and asked him to come back to do in-country training and so we debated and we decided let's give that a try so we went back and we took our son with us we were there for about a year a year and a half more we decided it was time to go home and start a different life I met Lili in 2011 a neighbor of ours who kind of knew everyone but we all didn't know each other went around and asked all the different neighbors if they'd like to be part of a book club she's always helpful in many ways to neighbors but one of the things that she does is she volunteers and as part of her volunteering she takes people who are elderly or can otherwise can't get themselves to things like doctor's appointments and shopping and things of that nature you know she's retired she could just be sitting back and reading books or doing other things that she would enjoy doing but she's still giving part of herself back to the community we have a lot you know a couple of neighbors that go down to Florida for the winter and Lili waters plants for neighbors gets mail for neighbors you know she does that kind of thing very willingly and we'll ask people if there's something she can do for them while they're away Peace Corps was something I always wanted to do but never had the guts to do it so when I found out she did that I thought wow that's really something that somebody would give up their life to do that I've been very fortunate to have had the life that I've had but sometimes when things are comfortable for you then you can give to others although I marvel again at the people who are struggling and beyond that struggle they continue to get and you know they're the gold star winners