“This year is going to be a better year,” says Linda Belz emphatically. “I am an optimist.”

Certainly we all hope that. Linda, in particular, has had myriad reasons during the past year, or to be exact, year and a half, to wish for better. Illnesses and injuries, hers and her family’s, as well as a death in the family, all converged during a short time frame, many of those events right around the critical planning of this year’s Heathrow Women’s Club Gala, called “Diamonds and Denim.” Many of us enjoyed it, but few knew what went on behind the scenes. Fortunately, other members of the Club, notably Pat Darrah, explains Linda, were able to step up and fill in the blanks. “This past year had a few speed bumps,” Linda explains. Now she’s getting her life back in order but is still on call for as yet unresolved family crises.

Although she had been a member of the Club for a number of years, she had not been very involved until she found herself chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. It happened, she explains, after she innocently asked the question about what the Committee’s responsibilities were. She now looks back at the experience with deep appreciation for the wonderful women who pulled off “a fun event.”

Linda is originally from Minnesota, one of seven children. When she first came to Florida, she and her husband Denny had no family down here. But now nearly 10 years later, all four daughters and their families live nearby. She explains that her extra long dining room table was purchased so that she could seat all of the family at various gatherings, which happen frequently. She also does occasional sleepovers for some of the 6 grandchildren: another is on the way. There are two new members of the family, two cats that were just adopted and have already made themselves quite at home.

She and her husband have moved frequently during their life together and as a result, she has put her interior decorating study to use in decorating houses. Gardening is another passion, and she plans to go back to learning to play the piano, which was interrupted during the past year. “This is the pattern of the seasons of life,” she says, making plans for a new and better year. -- Stephanie Strauss