Tyree McLeod writes...

This month, I am very happy to present the story of our member Tyree McLeod - our true Southern Belle! Tyree landed in Limerick “by accident” but has been an integral part of life here for many years!

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I grew up in South Carolina and lived in various cities around the Southern U.S. My father was a Sociology professor, and he changed Universities frequently.

I met my husband Jim in University, at Florida Southern College, where we were both in Concert Choir. After I studied French in Strasbourg for my third year at University, we married and lived in Atlanta for a number of years. When my oldest daughter, Sylvia, was 2 years old, we moved to Deland, Florida, which is located between Orlando and Daytona Beach. We had another daughter, Anna, and 7 years later adopted Elena from Guatemala when she was 4 months old.

We had done several short house exchanges to London, and we thought it would be fun for our family to live in Europe for a year. The only response we got to our query in the house exchange magazine was from a family in Limerick, so we decided we would give Ireland a try. We came for a year in 1993, and everyone enjoyed living here so much that we decided we'd stay for good.

My husband is in the art and antiques business, specialising in Chinese and Japanese

ceramics and European paintings and works of art. I have helped by doing restoration work, and Jim has gone back to the U.S. to buy and sell at antique fairs. There is a very large market once a month in Atlanta, so he goes there several times a year. We have merchandise stored there at a friend's house.

I joined the IWO when we first lived here and have been a member on and off ever since. In 2003 we bought an established tuition and learning support business, Fountain

of Knowledge, near our house at Monaleen Heights. I retired from that business two years ago, but I still teach English, now to adults, at the Failte Isteach programme at Christ Church on O'Connell Street., Limerick.,

I play tennis as often as I can, and I play piano and take lessons. I sing with my husband in the Limerick Choral Union, which we joined our first year in Limerick. I see my two grand-daughters in Bethesda Maryland, very near Washington, DC, whenever possible, sometimes on the way to or from helping Jim do a show in Atlanta.

I have enjoyed participating in the IWO and I have recruited several new members. I

am looking forward, as always, to this year's Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.