ABOUT MARJOBOOKS AUTHORS

The only child of devoted parents Maureen enjoyed an idyllic childhood. For a career she chose nursing and for the next 30 years enjoyed its many aspects both in hospitals and the community as well as audiometry, health promotion, lifestyle education and Aboriginal health. One of Maureen's most enjoyable projects was creating and presenting, along with her colleague Joan McCarthy, a health program for children using puppets; they called themselves the MarjoPuppets. Thirty years later they recommenced their creative partnership, wrote their first book together and are now Marjobooks.

Maureen's first marriage produced two children and eventually four grandchildren; her second marriage introduced her to a new life and adventures in the Northern Territory where she learnt to be resilient and resourceful. She also acquired six stepchildren and several step-grandchildren.

Travelling is now a pleasant pastime, especially on water, anything from a kayak to a cruise ship will do.

Over the past seven decades Maureen has learnt a great deal and to appreciate the diversity life offers.

She pursues the peace of silent meditation but also delights in the cacophony created by her grandchildren. She seeks solitude as well as the company of family and friends. She is compassionate and caring but rages at injustice and animal cruelty. She is a realist but allows her imagination to run wild. She thrives on exploring new places and taking risks but also indulges in the comfort and security of being at home. Nature is her deity but other faiths are an inspiration. She endeavors to live a healthy lifestyle however chocolate is her favourite treat and coffee her drink of choice. She sleeps late but is exhilarated by the sunrise. She is terrified of technology however, spends many hours at her computer, writing. She can be a genteel older woman but she is foremost, feisty fearless and free.

A glimpse into Joan's life reveals that she grew up in Guildford in the western suburbs of Sydney, NSW, Australia, and then married a local boy. She settled down to what she thought would be a lifetime of rearing her family. What followed proved to be that and a whole lot more.

Her life was enriched by her four children, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

Joan enjoyed a portfolio career. A cherry pick includes, managing health clinics at Santa Teresa and Kintore in Central Australia, Aged Care Assessor, setting up and running the Sophia Retreat Centre, offering English language to students at Kunming University in China, 20 years as a Health Educator with NSW Health Department.

In 2018 - just before her 80th birthday- she resigned from her work as a Personal Carer and to her surprise doors opened into her new career as a Life Artist Model and she started making TV commercials!

To describe Joan, people use words such as: honest, straight forward, you know where you stand with her, ebullient, feisty, vibrant, intelligent, fun loving, catalyst, caring, compassionate, creative, spiritual and of course sexy.