I owe my bridge career to an elderly uncle who once told me not to retire until I learned to play bridge. He felt I would not have enough to do. I think there was a lot of truth in that advice.
I began learning bridge by printing beginning lessons from the internet and reading and rereading those pages until the words made sense. Once I had a bit of confidence and a little knowledge, I played in person with a kindly gentleman who had thousands of points. He asked me how many points I had, I was embarrassed to tell him I thought I had eight! I learned so much from him; he was so patient and after every game he would say he enjoyed playing with me and thanked me. I know now how fortunate I was to have met him. I doubt many players would be that kind.
I played with him until he passed. We played together almost daily, certainly, every day he wanted to play. Bridge became his life, all he cared about. I surely was the benefactor of his skill, knowledge and tolerance.
Today I play with another elderly gentleman who is an accomplished, superior player and, a woman who is also more experienced than I. Thankfully, I continue to learn from them both!
My bridge journey began on December 31, 2019, when I attained my first master points. I learned bridge during COVID and had always felt that I was a didactic learner during my years of classroom education. COVID took that away from me!
I started playing duplicate Bridge in March 1970, and immediately joined the ACBL. I was a student at DePauw University, in Indiana. We were 4 children in our family, close in age, and I had learned to play Bridge very young because we had the perfect amount of players for most card games or board games.
When I graduated from high school and went to college (in 1986), my mother, Helene Cross (also an ACBL member) decided to learn bridge (and golf) as my younger brother was going to be headed off to college soon too and she thought they would be activities that would fill her days in place of the time well-spent raising her two children.