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A few days ago, I turned 56. It's not an age I mind turning. Not something I really mind dwelling on at all. I don't feel old at all. Most people when they meet me are surprised to find out how old I am. The only reason it does bother me is that that is the age that both my father and his mother both started showing signs of Alzheimer's and I watched them both go from people with vibrant personalities to people who just sat in the corner, unable to communicate or even walk around their own neighborhoods within 5 years and that scares the shit out of me. So instead of dwelling on that, I figure I'll write about my life so I don't forget about it later on. :) My plan of attack is to write an entry each week and for it to cover a year. I figure the first couple of weeks should be really easy! LOL. So if anyone's reading this boring tale, sit back and enjoy the story of Toria Kerina Winters.

My dad was born and raised in Bottomfork, Kentucky. That's in Hazzard County where supposedly "The Dukes of Hazzard" took place. His family was a coal mining family. He didn't want to be a coal miner, so at 17, he joined the Navy so he could see the world.

One day, while his ship was overseas and in Europe, they stopped at Dunoon, Scotland and he took the train to Glasgow, the nearest big city. While there, he stopped into a diner and ordered a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs and a glass of red wine. When he was about halfway through his meal, he got up to go to the bathroom. Imagine his surprise when he came back out to find a beautiful raven-haired woman sitting at his table finishing his meal! It seems she thought he had left. And that was how my parents met.

My dad's ship was stationed in Dunoon for just over a year and before it returned to the United States with my dad, my mom and dad got married. My dad got stationed in Norfork, Virginia and so he and my mom moved there, and about three months later, my mom found out she was pregnant. This might not have been so bad, but my dad was headed back out to sea for nine months. Luckily, his mom said that for the last month of the pregnancy, my mom could stay with her up in Ohio. And that is how, even though I was born in Ohio, I only lived there for the first two weeks of my life, cause after that, my mom and I moved back to Norfork, Virginia, the first of many of the moves in my life.