Yes … I am a “come here”!

Although my mom’s side of the family can easily be traced to New Kent County and the Shepherdstown area from the middle 1600s, I was born a California Girl (in my defense, “Southern” California). At the early age of barely 5 my family moved from Los Angeles about 75 miles to the northeast high desert area of Lancaster.

Wanting to raise their daughter away from the big city, they purchased 40 acres of alfalfa fields and began raising hay. Our closest neighbors were the Doughertys who lived about ½ mile up the road. They welcomed us to the rural life and much to my delight brought their daughter, Gwen, to meet me. We instantly connected, beginning a friendship that has endured more than 65 years and across a continent!!

In 1966 Gwen married a young Marine from Hampton and moved back to his homeplace a few years later. Although our lives took very different paths we managed to keep the thread of friendship strong. On my first visit to her new family in the mid-1970s I fell totally in love with Virginia … not realizing until much later that it was to be expected … I had Southern blood in my veins!

My husband and I purchased a vacation condo at Gloucester Point to facilitate visiting as much and as long as we could each year. Kids and careers grew and changed and before we knew it, it was time to retire. Very little doubt where that would be! Leaving San Diego, our hometown for 50 years, we bought our new home in Gloucester Court House in 2001 and have happily become part of the land where life is most definitely worth living. And to think, it all started with two little girls who became “blood sisters” so many years ago.

Marilyn Iglesias

Gloucester, Va.