Bernadette Kolbeck grew up in Milwaukee and was the last child in a large family. Early on, she became an avid reader. From Nancy Drew mysteries to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to the Wild West as described by Louis L'Amour, she developed a love of stories and the history that inspired them. Sampling a variety of jobs and careers, she is, at heart, a people person who enjoyed serving others, first, as a parent raising her family of six sons. Attending Marquette University, she completed RN and MSN degrees and became the director of nursing at a large assisted living/retirement facility. The keeper of the family lore, she researched and wrote two large narrative photobiographies of her family after her retirement from nursing. Simon and Sophia are two of her youngest grandchildren out of twenty-three. She lives in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
