About Laurie Lotus
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Left, my husband Frank and me
at our Engagement Party on Frank's 20th birthday, Summer 1969 Right, my husband Frank and me
at our 50th Anniversary Family Reunion Barcelona, Spain January 2020 |
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My Story Book Life
By Laurie Lotus Miller
I was born in 1950 to Hal & Jean Hertzog and spent my first 10 years in Bellflower, California. I have a brother two years older than I am, and we had a stereotypical white middle-class family in the 50's and 60's. My father worked as an appraiser in downtown L.A. and my mother was mostly a full-time housewife and mom. She worked at Macy's at Christmas time and was a Welcome Wagon hostess. She was also an artist and seamstress. We had our family arguments, but they were both good, loving parents. I remember fun times on family holidays and camping trips. We took a road trip across the country when I was six in our four-door Ford sedan towing a 16' cabin cruiser my dad built.
We spent two years in San Mateo when my dad was transferred to San Francisco, but we moved back to Southern California when I was 12. I lived in Long Beach with my parents until I married my husband, Frank, on New Year's Eve, 1969. I was 19.
Frank and I moved to a 22-acre apple ranch in Watsonville in 1973 with our two-year-old daughter, Joy. The next year our son Jason was born. We had moved away from our families and friends in Southern California to the Central California Coast when I was 22. Weather was a cooler but there was a lot less concrete, people and cars. We spent the '70's and '80's raising our two kids complete with Christian school for a while, ballet, cheer leading, color guard, marching band, gymnastics, vaulting, soccer, Little League and Pony League.
Frank worked at Watsonville Community Hospital in the grounds until he opened his own landscaping business in 1983. I worked as a legal secretary and later a paralegal between 1977 and 2009. We had two foster kids, Chris Smith and Donna Summer, for about a year each when Joy was in elementary school and Jason was a toddler. We also did a short stint as group home parents when Joy was 16 and Jason was 13. In 1987 we moved to Apple Lane in Aptos where we lived for the next 30 years.
We spent two years in San Mateo when my dad was transferred to San Francisco, but we moved back to Southern California when I was 12. I lived in Long Beach with my parents until I married my husband, Frank, on New Year's Eve, 1969. I was 19.
Frank and I moved to a 22-acre apple ranch in Watsonville in 1973 with our two-year-old daughter, Joy. The next year our son Jason was born. We had moved away from our families and friends in Southern California to the Central California Coast when I was 22. Weather was a cooler but there was a lot less concrete, people and cars. We spent the '70's and '80's raising our two kids complete with Christian school for a while, ballet, cheer leading, color guard, marching band, gymnastics, vaulting, soccer, Little League and Pony League.
Frank worked at Watsonville Community Hospital in the grounds until he opened his own landscaping business in 1983. I worked as a legal secretary and later a paralegal between 1977 and 2009. We had two foster kids, Chris Smith and Donna Summer, for about a year each when Joy was in elementary school and Jason was a toddler. We also did a short stint as group home parents when Joy was 16 and Jason was 13. In 1987 we moved to Apple Lane in Aptos where we lived for the next 30 years.
1970 Baby Joy
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1974 Baby Jason
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He's so beautiful, Mommy! But why is he so funny looking?
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1974 Miller Family portrait
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LIFE CHANGER: I took a class at Cabrillo College in Natural Healing Arts in 1989 where I met Antara Davis and Michelle Hayward. We bonded and continued meeting in Sacred Space together with other women exploring Women's Spirituality and a myriad of other subjects including arts and crafts, psychic gifts and tools, energy healing, hiking, rituals to celebrate Rites of Passage and the Wheel of the Year. We three founded a group called The Sisters of the Sacred Circle later that year.
Each dressed as her favorite goddess and shared about her.
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A tea party for four generations in Apple Lane Gardens.
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All Hallows Eve at the Day Valley Family Cemetery.
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Our two children grew up healthy and both got married young like we did. They blessed us with five fabulous grandchildren who all lived near us as they were growing up. We enjoyed spending holidays together, a few camping trips and vacations, Little League, soccer, basketball, music recitals, field hockey, birthdays and graduations. Now the Five Grands are all adults and have moved away.
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In 2009 I retired from the legal community and founded Twin Lotus Center (TLC) with Antara. Please read about TLC here.
June 2017, my husband retired from his business as a landscape contractor. Santa Cruz County had become crowded with lots of traffic and we decided to move to a quieter area. A series of events led us to find our home in Weed, in Edgewood Forest just north of Mt. Shasta, California. Everything fell into place with such remarkable precision that we moved in three months after the business closed.
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We are still adjusting to "Weed Speed" and retirement. Our routine is naturally slower so we are taking this opportunity to focus on ourselves and form healthy habits. We are educating ourselves on health and the food industry, along with the medical and advertising industries. For a while, we drank a green drink daily and ate vegetarian but we didn't feel as well as we had hoped. We continue to modify our eating habits to find out what works best for our bodies. We are becoming very present. This transformation is still in progress!
New Year's Eve 2019 was our 50th wedding anniversary. We celebrated in January with a family reunion in Barcelona, Spain! Our youngest grandson lived there with his fiancée. They have since moved to Dallas, Texas, and are now married! Our two children and the other four grands joined us for a fabulous time! Jaxon, Maria, and her mom, Pilar, were great hosts and tour guides. Truly unforgettable!
Barcelona 2020 Clan
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Joy and her "kids."
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Jason and his "boys."
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The Five Grands 2020 Style
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I miss my Sacred Sisters from Santa Cruz, but some of them do come visit the Sacred Mountain and so I get to see them, too. I am forming friendships with other women here. I will have lots of pictures on this website but plan to blog, too. I find this life is a great big adventure and as my husband said recently,
"I don't know where this journey is taking us, but I'm sure loving this stretch of the road!"
"I don't know where this journey is taking us, but I'm sure loving this stretch of the road!"
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