I was raised in a dysfunctional family in Clarksville, Maryland. My father was an alcoholic, and my mother was a screaming, screeching shrew who could be heard all over the village. I was one of five living children, as my mother lost a baby between myself and my younger sister.

I attended a Catholic school from grades 1 to 8, and then an all-girls school for four years of high school. I then left home for a Catholic college in Washington, DC, and graduated with a BA.

After graduating, I began teaching math from grades 7 to 12.

I then met and fell in love with a man at a singles gathering in Ohio, where I went for postgraduate studies. We soon got married, but eventually divorced. I never married again.