Mari Miya
5 Forest Street
Freeport, Maine
mmiya05027@gmail.com
207 751 4306

I am living the “way life should be” up here in Maine (please ignore our governor).  Happily married (second) with a reconstituted family: my daughter and three bonus children, all grown and gainfully employed.   We recently downsized and moved into downtown Freeport, Maine (home of L.L Bean) where I can walk to the grocery store, library, post office and the movies.  When my daughter asked me why we were moving, I said I wanted to be able to walk more places and she said: “I think you want to be in New York City.”  Haha.

I am retired from a long career in Information Technology and a much shorter but most rewarding one as a CNA.  I am a hospice volunteer, take art classes, read (the New York Times every day), write, and train (swim, bike/spin, run) year round in order to compete in an annual triathlon that raises funds for cancer research.  I am a 13 year cancer survivor.

Aside from cokes at Mayhews, birthday corsages, faculty show and watching Nancy Miller finish the NY Times crossword puzzle every day before first period, I remember Hunter as a place of learning and intellectual inspiration, challenge, competition and camaraderie.  I think of the wonderful teachers we had and know how lucky we were to have had them: encouraging us, admonishing us, guiding us.  We learned to listen, we learned to think, we learned to question and we learned to be good citizens and caretakers and leaders.   I’m still writing letters to my members of Congress and out on the street marching. 

I’m grateful to my Hunter friends who got me through adolescent and teenage angst by sharing, encouraging and sympathizing.  I am happy to have reconnected with many via email and facebook.  Looking forward to seeing those who come in June.

Here I am with my daughter, Anna, in Monet’s kitchen, Giverny, France, 2015.

Update 2022

This year (2022) is my 41st year living in Maine.  Hard to believe.  Not much to update since my last bio for our 50th.  I still live in Freeport with my spouse (2nd marriage for both of us) Bob.  We have 4 children between the two of us, two living in Maine and two in New York City.  So far we’ve weathered the Covid pandemic all right – being introverts and retired means that our day to day lives hasn’t changed much.  We do a lot of outdoor activities year-round and that has helped sustain us. 

Last September I did a bike ride of the western half of the Erie Canal (about 160 miles over 5 days from Buffalo to Syracuse) with some women friends.  A lot of history and such beautiful country in that part of New York State!  A highlight of the ride was meeting up with Patricia (Yuan) Zurowski and Linda (Grossman) Beins who came to Seneca Falls (from Rochester and Trumansburg respectively)  to meet me for dinner! 

Before the pandemic, I was taking some art classes and volunteering with hospice.  During the pandemic I did some on-line classes but was unable to volunteer and have since been doing other volunteer activities which don’t require too much  in- person interactions.  I am beginning to travel again, just spent some time in our favorite city and filled each day with museum trips, good food, a visit with Catherine Ross, and seeing a lot of our NYC offspring.

One of the most noteworthy events in the last 5 years of my life was helping my daughter find her birth families and discovering that her birthmother and I attended the same NYC elementary school.  Finding her birth families has led to some wonderful relationships for my daughter and has grown our family in delightful ways.