Hello ladies,

I am honoured to be chosen as member of the month, as I have only been with the DOCI for a year or so.

Just to tell you a little about my life, my 2 sisters and I were all born in Yorkshire (in case we were boys and needed to play cricket for Yorkshire apparently). My  father was a very successful career civil servant and we moved around with his work, inevitably moving south so that he could work in the city of London. My mother was an exuberant character and we felt very happy to be in a close and loving family. When Mum died I was 16, so as the others had already left home, I gladly stayed and looked after Dad so missed out on university.

I married at 19 to a bluegrass musician and we sang in folk clubs and lived near Phidelphia for a while. I could not get a permit to work there and eventually left him to return to the U.K. and build a career. I ended up, 3 more  husbands later, running the European import and distribution side of a large Indian business.

Making up for missing out on university I had, by then. taken a degree in Interior Design whilst working 9-5 in the office as well. I don't think I went out much for those 4 years!

Tim and I will have been together 25 years next year - so 4th time lucky on the marriage front.

Tim worked on computer systems as a Vice President at Citibank in London, and we have both lived and travelled overseas a fair bit.

Now, supposedly retired in 2009, we came to France and ran a Chambres d'Hôtes in Charente Maritime for several years. Then we came to our senses and moved to the Dordogne for a rest. Now I just go to French lessons, pottery lessons, the DLCI book club in Monpazier - oh and I teach bridge once a week and play in a duplicate bridge group once a week. I nearly forgot to  mention the patchwork quilting and watercolour painting which are two other passions.

Well who wants to sit at home and put their feet up?  Maybe sometime soon…..

I am sure a lot of us in the DLCI have lives like this. How lucky we are as women to have been  born in the right place in these times of increasing equality and opportunity in Europe. It is heartbreaking to see on the news the plight of other women living with war, poverty and oppression.

Laura Sankey