In the fall of 2002 I was still working full time and was looking for people to play bridge with one evening a week. I learned about a game at Rehoboth Beach Country Club on Thursday nights and when I went there, I had the great fortune of meeting Dini Romito, ambassador extraordinaire for the game of bridge. I had never heard of the ACBL and knew nothing about conventions like transfers, negative doubles and weak two bids.  I was a “kitchen table” player, aware of Stayman and Blackwood and little else.  But Dini encouraged me, introduced me to serious duplicate play and was a fabulous mentor.  I earned a little over 5 masterpoints that year and began taking lessons.

Most importantly, I met a lot of terrific people who also liked bridge and wanted to improve their skills.  I also found experienced players who were willing to share their knowledge and expertise.  Over the years many players helped me get masterpoints and I want to thank all of them.  I’m reluctant to try to name them because I’m sure I will leave someone out–but you know who you are!  I do want to give a special shout-out to Jane Myers, the partner I’ve played with the longest and the most and the person with whom I qualified to go to NAP games at Nationals a couple of times when we were in the top 3 pairs in our District 4 flights.

I began playing bridge more frequently in retirement and I must say that during the years of the pandemic BBO online bridge had been a lifeline for me.  I got to “socialize” with my various partners and I had something to look forward to on a regular basis.  I honestly didn’t think I would ever live long enough to get 2500 masterpoints but it happened and I had a lot of fun along the way!