It has been quite an adventure getting to this point. A few years ago I was grandfathered as a Life Master and I felt I had really not earned it. I wanted to reach 500 points and 50 Gold like my friends had done.
For a long time I needed just 4 Golds and then I got 21 of them in one tournament to make me a “real Life Master.” Gold points have seemed much easier after that but amassing 1,000 total points has taken me a while and I am pleased to have done it.
I had not played bridge since college (am now 81). I lost my wife to cancer on April 4th, 2020…during the COVID epidemic. So, here I was grieving and very much alone. When our YMCA in Phoenixville PA re-opened in August, I started going to work out again. I vaguely remembered something about a bridge club and inquired. I was sent to the “active older adults” room (I call it the old age room) and met a group of people playing bridge.
I believe it was the next month that they were going to have a week long teaching session. So I sat in on a bunch of hands to observe and, kind of, relearn the game a little. I also went on-line to play and learn a little more. The main thing that bridge did for me was to give me company…people to be around and to have a little fun again. It was an extremely trying period (and still is, but to a lesser degree) and that bridge club (along with my church) became the center of my life.
I would like to thank all the directors and the club owners and workers that have helped me along the way.
I’m so proud of the clubs that I I have been a part of. Thank you to Ed and Mark and all of my friends that have helped me in this journey.
I learned to play bridge when I was around 8 years old but stopped when I was 12. I didn’t play again for 50 years. When I moved to Harrisburg a friend invited me to play in a local social bridge game. I would play a couple times a month. Transfers were considered advanced play! After retiring my social bridge players told me that I should join the local Harrisburg Bridge Club. That was two years ago. The club was extremely helpful in supporting me. Even though I had played only a few months, with encouragement from the club directors, I started playing in open games. I found myself enjoying the game and played more and more. Mike Zeller spent countless hours teaching me how to be disciplined in my bidding and to declare and defend well. Bill Even and I became regular partners at the club and in tournaments, and we learned a lot together. Other advanced members mentored and helped me as well.
Near the end of October, I had 400 masterpoints. Some of my bridge colleagues were getting their Life Master in 2024, and I didn’t want to be left behind. I had to get to 500 by the end of November to be recognized at the annual meeting. So I set my goal of 100 MPs in a month to become Life Master. It wasn’t easy. I traveled to tournaments and pretty much played every day. Some were skeptical it was possible, but many players encouraged me and helped, and I am very grateful. I reached 502.05 MPs on November 30, and my goal of Life Master became reality.
My husband and I retired from the investment business in Manhattan and moved to Philadelphia 30 years ago. We raised our family here, and built an active life.
As we aged, we wanted to have an activity that we enjoyed together. Bridge fit that bill. We both played a bit in college and only sporadically afterward, since work and then family monopolized our time. We began to focus on playing together right before the Pandemic and then everything shut down. We don’t play on-line, so we had to wait until in-person play began again, using bridge solitaire programs to keep our new skills fresh. Once face-to-face began, we dove in playing 2-3 times per week. Little by little our point count built. I had played sanctioned games occasionally so I had a few more points than my husband, and have reached the NABC Master Level first. My husband is not far behind.
We both love the game and the continuing challenge it provides. We wake in the morning and sometimes say, “Good Morning! If I bid a Heart, and you bid a Spade…” Our next goal is Life Masters but at 74 and 85 years of age, we can only hope!
My bridge story is really a story about my Dad and me, which is why he is pictured with me. For my entire life, my Dad played bridge. Sometimes, I would tag along and watch and occasionally I’d caddy.
In 2020, my parents moved from Missouri to New York to live with my husband and I, leaving their friends and my Dad’s beloved bridge club and partner behind. I retired in 2022 and started playing bridge as a way to spend time with him and to learn the game that he loved so much. He’s been the best teacher and partner I could wish for and the time playing with him has been precious.