Carol F. Orange Robinson

At Cornell I met and later married Eric Nordlinger.  We moved to Princeton where he studied political science.. Then we moved to London for eighteen months. He conducted research for his thesis, and I edited a book of Spanish art. We lived in a world that loved Americans. JFK was president and optimism flowed.

Later we bought a Boston townhouse, and our daughter, Alex was born, One summer we rented a villa in Andalusia. Alex and I traveled to Madrid where we met Xavier de Salas, my advisor in London who had become Director of the Prado. Having bribed Alex with a flamenco dress, I viewed Goya’s paintings without interruption.

When she was five I worked as a guidance counselor. Eric and I divorced a few years later, and I enrolled in an  MBA program that demanded 80 hour weeks.  Having survived this marine boot camp I accepted a job as an Advertising Manager for Polaroid’s South American market.  During this time I met, and later married, my neighbor, David Robinson, a photographer who introduced us to Italy.

After ten years in marketing, I started an art business which took us to Italy and France. When Alex went to college in California, a series of delightful Italians studying economics at MIT inhabited our top floor.  In 1990 I sold the art business, and we moved to Paris for two years. I studied French and wrote stories while my husband  photographed. Italian friends, horrified by our traitorous decision, still welcomed us in their homes.

We then moved to the Bay Area to be near Alex. A successful business woman, she now lives in my former house in Mill Valley with her husband and two bulldogs.

Having led a peripatetic life I recently returned to my roots. Sadly many family members have died, but Lois Jacobs lives across Central Park. We became friends when we were seven, and  over the years we have traveled to some fabulous countries. Since my wisest decisions involved buying and selling appreciating properties I now work in real estate --- stealing time from life in order to write.