Local News
Simkin Centre receives $725,000 gift from mysterious donor
By BERNIE BELLAN
(Posted Oct. 29, updated Oct. 30, Oct.31)
On Oct. 21 we received an email from the Simkin Centre informing us that the centre had received a gift of $725,000 from someone about whom they know almost nothing.
This story has now been amended to reflect crucial information that we have obtained about the individual who was responsible for that sizeable donation. If you want to skip to that new information scroll down to the end of this article. If you want to read how the story unfolded – keep reading.
Here is what the email received on Oct. 21 said:
“The Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre PCH Inc. Board of Directors and The Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre Foundation Board of Directors are pleased to share with you the announcement of an unexpected bequest to the Sharon Home in the amount of $725,937 CDN from the Estate of Myer and Corrine Geller of San Diego, California.
“These funds come to the Centre at an opportune time as we are faced with aging infrastructure and equipment, rising costs with freezes or cuts to government funding and ongoing covid related costs that remain unfunded at this time. A portion of these funds (30%) will be used for the immediate needs of the Centre, including support of our fight against Covid-19. The remainder (70%) of the funds will be allocated to the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba to create our new Building Reserve Fund. This fund will help to ensure our ability to maintain our building and equipment on a long term basis. The Simkin Centre is a world class facility and we want to do our best to keep it that way.
“All we know about the Gellers is they had no children and Myer was a 1943 graduate of St. John’s High School (Winnipeg). Further, Mr. Geller went to MIT, became a physicist and was granted several patents.
“We have been unable to determine why we were the recipient of this bequest. We hope sharing this good news with the community may give us some insight into the mystery. We hope that the Gellers’ generosity will inspire others to consider the Simkin Centre in their estate planning.”
Upon receipt of this tantalizing news, we began to investigate who Myer and Corrine Geller were and the possible reason that they had decided to leave such a substantial amount of money to the Sharon Home.
Beyond the information that was divulged in the Simkin Centre press release we were able to determine some further information about the Gellers. We were aided in this process by Don Aronovitch, who is Chair of the Simkin Foundation, and by Don Harrison, publisher and editor of the San Diego Jewish World.
Myer Geller was born in Winnipeg in 1926. Although we are not certain who his parents were, a search of various websites, including Ancestry.ca, has led us to believe that his father’s name was Max Geller. There were several Max Gellers who lived in Winnipeg in the early part of the 20th century. Unfortunately, none of the archival material that we searched led to a definite conclusion who Myer Geller’s parents were. We also contacted Rena Boroditsky of the Chesed shel Emes to see whether the Chesed’s records give the names of next of kin of deceased, but they don’t. We also spoke with Shelly Sklover, funeral director of Etz Chayim Congregation, to see whether their records give the names of next of kin of deceased. (Of the many Gellers who are buried in Winnipeg cemeteries, 49 out of 51 are buried in cemeteries now under Etz Chayim’s management.) Unfortunately that information is also not contained within the Etz Chayim’s records.
We also searched the archives of our own newspaper and were only able to find one reference to Myer Geller – that he had a bar mitzvah in 1939. A search of the Jewish Heritage Centre’s archives also led nowhere, but unfortunately their archives do not give very precise results.
An email from Don Aronovitch, however, shed some more light as to when the Simkin Centre first became aware that a substantial donation was about to come their way:
“In early October 2019, Laurie (Cerqueti, CEO of the Simkin Centre) was notified we were the 11% Beneficiary of the Myer & Corinne Geller estate in San Diego. While fabulous news, it was so much ‘out of the blue, that we wondered if it was legitimate. We were sent a copy of the Will and gradually, the prospect of this bequest being real came into focus. After a long quiet period, as the estate was being settled, a cheque for $550,000 USD arrived in August payable to the Saul & Claribel Simkin Centre Foundation. After the standard waiting period to see if the cheque cleared the banking system, our bank gave us a ‘thumb’s up’ and it became the focus of the Simkin Centre’s planning process.
“Our efforts to determine ‘who these people were’ & ‘why us’ drew a blank. We determined that Myer graduated from St. John’s High School the same year as Gordon Pullan and that Buddy Brownstone was editor of St. John’s Newsletter. However, neither Gordon nor Buddy had recollection of a Myer Geller. Similarly, we were unable to determine Corinne Geller’s maiden name.”
In addition to the information contained in the Simkin Centre email that Myer Geller graduated from St John’s Tech in 1943, we were able to learn that he moved to the United States in 1949, became an American citizen in 1950, and attended MIT from 1951-55. A search of University of Manitoba records did not disclose that Mr. Geller ever attended that university, so it’s a mystery where else he might have gone to school following his graduation from St. John’s.
Myer Geller married Corrine Taper (although her name is spelled Corrin on their marriage record) in 1954 in New York state. At various times the Gellers lived in New York, Pennsylvania, and California.
The Gellers moved to San Diego in 1988, which is where they lived until their deaths – Myer Geller in 2018 and Corrine Geller in 2019.We managed to locate a close friend of the Gellers, someone by the name of Mikahil Melsitov. Mr. Melsitov did not know whether Myer Geller had any living relatives, although he did think that he had a brother. We attempted to contact anyone by the name Geller in Winnipeg to learn whether any of them knew Myer Geller, but our efforts proved fruitless.
During the course of our conversation with Mikhail Melsitov, he also disclosed that his wife, Oxana, was a trustee of the Geller Trust, which donated the $725,000 Cdn. to the Sharon Home. Although Mr. Melsitov was quite friendly during our 20-minute conversation and was willing to give us his wife’s cell number, all attempts to contact her proved futile. Further attempts to contact Mr. Melsitov also led nowhere. (Why did both Melsitovs refuse to respond to our repeated attempts to contact them, we wonder, especially when Mr. Melsitov had been so friendly during our only phone call?) Something that Mr. Melsitov did say that aroused our interest though was that representatives of the Geller Trust had difficulty making contact with the Simkin Centre in August 2019, following Mrs. Geller’s death. Presumably that was because they were trying to contact the Sharon Home. After all, Myer Geller had left Winnipeg 70 years earlier and would he even have been aware that the Sharon Home was now the Simkin Centre?
We also attempted to contact various lawyers who were associated with Myer Geller, none of whom responded to our phone messages or emails. We did discover that the Geller home was sold by their estate for $1.25 million in April of this year. The home was not overly large – only two bedrooms and two bathrooms. (By the way, the taxes were only $2,700 on their home. That gives you an idea how high our city taxes are in Winnipeg compared to other cities – as if you needed to be reminded.)
But if the donation to the Simkin Centre constituted only 11% of the total amount left to all beneficiaries of the Geller Trust, the Geller Trust would have been worth close to $7 million Canadian.
How did Myer Geller amass such a large fortune?
From what we were able to determine he was an inventor of extraordinary ability. Myer Geller’s name is associated with 15 different patents. For at least a certain period of his life he worked for a branch of the US Navy called the Naval Operations Support Centre. We attempted to contact a representative of the NOSC to find out if there was anything we could be told about Mr. Geller, but were unsuccessful.
So, the question that tantalizes is: Why would someone who had left Winnipeg 70 years ago want to leave such a substantial donation to the Jewish nursing home (which is now referred to as a personal care home)?
We asked Don Aronovitch whether the Simkin Centre had searched its records to try to find the name of someone who might have been a relative of Myer Geller?
Don responded: “None that we could find. We had very few leads and they all led to a dead end.”
We commented to Don: “It just seems so strange that 70 years after having left Winnipeg he leaves so much money to the Winnipeg Jewish nursing home – and nobody knows anything about him.”
Don Aronovitch agreed: “Very strange but there is a story there. We just do not yet know what it is.”
If anyone reading this is able to shed some light on Myer Geller please contact this newspaper. We’d love to be able to report at some future date that we solved this mystery.
Post script: Since this story first appeared in the Oct. 28 issue of The Jewish Post & News we have received some very intresting responses from a number of different readers.
One reader said they actually had a copy of the 1943 St. John’s yearbook with Myer Geller’s picture in it. We’re reproduced that photo on this site. The caption accompanying the photo says: “Myer Geller – A good man to have around when scholastics come to the fore, Myer is the fellow who has made the Reserve Army what it is today.”
Then we received an email from another reader who has been fascinated by the story and who contacted a friend who is an ardent genealogist. Their friend did some further digging beyond what I had come up with and sent the following information: “Myer died on 12/30/16. He and Corinne, who was born 2/12/26, bought their house at 1622 Plum St. in San Diego in 1993. He got his degree from MIT in 1955 and in 1960 or 1961 moved from a job at Hughes Products to be a senior scientist at the Solid State Division of Electro-Optical Systems in Pasadena, CA. He was a registered Democrat.”
Updated Oct. 30: Reader Ed Feuer came up with even further information about Myer Geller. In a post to our Facebook page Ed wrote that he had found a reference to Myer Geller in the July 5 archives of the Winnipeg Free Press, in a notice headed “City man receives Massachussetts degree” The body of the notice says: “Myer Geller, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. Geller, 284 Bannerman Avenue, has received his doctor of physics degree from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Boston. Mr. Geller attended St John’s technical high school and the University of Manitoba. He received his master’s degree in physics at the University of Minnesota.”
There are only two Gellers in Winnipeg whose first names begin with M who could have been Myer Geller’s father – and both had the first name Max. One Max Geller died in 1956, and one in 1966. Unfortunately neither one appears in the Free Press obituary archives. But – we’ve determined that the Max Geller who died in 1956 was married to Dora, who did live in the Sharon Home. But Dora’s obituary makes no reference to a Myer Geller.
The other Max Geller died in 1966. His wife’s name was Sarah (née Feldman). We haven’t been able to find an obituary for either one. The question is: Did either Max or Sarah Geller live in the Sharon Home prior to their death?
Update Oct. 31: We received further information from reader Ed Feuer, who found Max Geller’s obituary notice in the Winnipeg Tribune archives.
Ed confirmed that Myer Geller’s parents were Max and Sarah Geller. He also disclosed that Myer Geller had two sisters: Frances – who was married to an Edward Jordan in Toronto; and Rose – who was married to Louis Lieberman, also of Toronto.
We will attempt to obtain any information about either sister. But, if anyone reading this does have some information that woud be useful, please contact me at jewishp@mymts.net or call me at 1-204-694-3332.
Local News
Federation mission to Poland mix of heartbreak and celebration
By MYRON LOVE For Sheila Rabb, her first visit to Poland was “both heartbreaking and heartwarming.”
The 90-year-old Rabb was one of 34 participants in the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s first ever organized Adult Mission to Poland. The group toured Poland from Wednesday August 26 – Monday August 31, with an entourage of Israel and Polish tour guides, a security guard ,and two bus drivers.
It was Jeff Lieberman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg (and whose late father, Aron Lieberman, was a Holocaust survivor who was originally from Poland) who initiated the trip. “In 2023,” he recounted, “shortly after I was appointed CEO, I learned we had never organized an adult mission to Poland. Given the passage of time since the Holocaust and the tragedy of October 7th, I thought there would be interest in offering this meaningful trip to our community.“
The six-day journey,” Lieberman continued, ”taught us about the 1,000 years of mostly good and impactful Jewish life in Poland before 1939, as well as what happened during the Holocaust. We visited several sites including the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, the Polin Museum, synagogues, the Krakow Jewish Community Centre, the Lodz Ghetto, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps, and the Chelmo death camp.
Lieberman noted that the group bonded very quickly. ”We learned so much,” he said. “We cried together and we celebrated together. Many of the people that went on this mission have said how life-changing this trip was for them.”
In particular, the Federation CEO singled out the presence of Sheila Rabb. He describes her as “incredible”. It was a difficult tour with much walking and standing at sites, he noted.
“She was a real trooper,” Lieberman said. “Sheila was able to able to experience this meaningful journey with her children. It was truly special for us to have Sheila and her children, Ian and Irene (Zimmer), join us.”
“There was a wheelchair available for me if I needed it,” said Rabb, who looks much younger than her years. “I must admit that the heavy schedule of 12-hour days and late dinners was a challenge. But everyone was so nice and helpful and protective of me.”
Sheila Rabb’s connection to Poland was through her mother, Molly (Horn) Pitch. Fortunately, she was able to emigrate in the early 1930s. (Sheila’s father, Willy, came here from Russia about the same time.) Molly was able to bring one brother over but sadly, all but one sister were subsequently murdered by the Nazis.
The group began their journey in Warsaw with a visit to the Polin Museum which – Rabb noted – was built by Ron Lauder, president of the Estee Lauder Foundation. The museum recounts over 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland.
“We learned about Jewish life, how Jews contributed to Polish society and the rich communities that existed throughout the country,” Lieberman reported.. “You can’t talk about Poland without including the impact of what Jews did for Poland.”
Both Rabb and Lieberman have fond memories of a group of Israeli high school students that that they met at the museum, who were from Ulpanat Chorev High School in Jerusalem. “We joined them in singing Hatikvah and other songs and danced a hora with them,” Lieberman said. “We ran into them again at Mila 18 and Auschwitz, and their Head of School invited us to join them for Kabbalat Shabbat in Krakow.
“Our group had the amazing experience of celebrating Shabbat with them,” he continued. “The women were so joyous, and their enthusiasm helped us emotionally after what we had experienced during the first few days of the mission. Their presence and the sorrow they expressed at the sites we shared with them had a profound impact on all of us.”
The group’s time in Warsaw also included a visit to a Jewish cemetery with over 250,000 graves and a walking tour of the famed Warsaw Ghetto.
The next stop was Lublin and the Majdanek death camp.
“One can read the books, watch the films and visit the museums, but nothing prepares you for walking the grounds of the death camps and mass grave sites and the profound sadness and shock that accompany them,” observed Jewish Federation staffer Abby Flackman, who was also part of the mission. “Walking in Auschwitz, Majdanek and the forest graves of Chelmno, I felt, validated the lives that were taken. We take the memories of their experiences and assure that they will not be lost with time.
“But,” she added, “we also showed that we are still here. We are still laughing and feeling joy, supporting one another and proud of who we are.”
On the other side of the coin, the group witnessed the ongoing rebirth of Poland’s Jewish community. One site that Sheila Rabb recalled in particular was the reconstituted Lublin yeshiva. The yeshiva, which opened in 1930, was one of the largest in the world. The building was restored by the Jewish community in 2003 and reopened as a synagogue in 2007.
On the Friday of the tour, the group arrived in Krakow, where they toured the old Jewish quarter where, Ian Rabb noted, there are still many Jewish-owned businesses – also the Schindler factory museum. He reported that Krakow has a Jewish population of about 1,200, as well as home to the internationally known annual Krakow Jewish Festival.
Sheila Rabb spoke about a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor the group encountered, who told his story. Although he had lived in California most of his life, he felt the need to return to Poland two years ago.
While in Krakow, the group made a day trip to nearby Lancut, formerly a Hasidic stronghold, where the members of the group toured the synagogue that was built in 1761 and has been well preserved.
“The synagogue was unreal,” Ian Rabb commented. “It has an art deco design that exudes spirituality and kabbalah.”
The Winnipeggers finished their tour with a visit to the Lodz ghetto. Lodz was an industrial city and the last Polish city to be made “Judenrein” because the Nazis needed the Jewish factory workers to build tanks and sew German soldiers’ uniforms.
For Sheila Rabb, one of the most difficult moments was standing on the site of the mass grave in the forest near the Chelmno death camp, not far from Lodz, where up to as many as 300,000 victims of the Chelmno gas chambers were buried.
“We recited kaddish over the site,” she said.
Sheila Rabb hac high praise for the Winnipeggers’ Polish and Israeli tour guides, Janush and Mordechai. ”They were outstanding,” she said. “They really brought history alive for us.”
Ian Rabb reports that his cousin (and Sheila’s nephew), Alan Pitch, who was also part of the group, is working on a documentary of the trip.
The last word goes to Abby Flackman. “My biggest takeaway,” she said, “is that we will control how our story ends. The Nazis tried to end our story of the Holocaust. They failed. We went elsewhere, built communities and institutions, grew again in numbers and continue to strive to become stronger, more resilient and thrive.”
Local News
Gray Academy enrolment continuing steady upward trend
By MYRON LOVE Next year, Gray Academy of Jewish Education will celebrate its 30th anniversary – and Western Canada’s only JK-Grade 12 Jewish day school has much to celebrate.
For starters, enrolment continues to grow. Lori Binder, Gray Academy’s Head of School and CEO of the Winnipeg Board of Jewish Education, is pleased to report that this year’s opening enrolment stands at 521 – the highest number for September in 13 years.
For the third year in a row, Gray Academy is running three kindergarten classes, and all three are nearly full, as are the Grade 1 and 2 classes. While Early Years remains the main entry point for new families, the school also welcomed 37 new students to its elementary and high school this year – a total of 88 new students.
Lisa Boroditsky, the school’s admissions coordinator, points out that many kindergarten children are coming from the Kaufman Child Care Centre at the Rady JCC and Chabad-Lubavitch of Winnipeg’s Torah Tots early childcare program. At the high school level, she notes, Grade seven enrolment is also rising, with more students coming to Gray Academy after completing Brock Corydon Elementary School’s Hebrew Bilingual Program.
“From our parent surveys, we can report that parents are choosing Gray Academy not out of fear, but rather because they value the sense of Jewish community that is only available at Gray Academy,” Binder says. “The fact that so many current Gray Academy students are children of alumni also tells us that parents believe in the high academic standards and the positive Jewish experiences we offer.”
New for the school’s elementary School this year, Lori Binder reports, is a musical theatre program. Over the years, our community has produced a significant number of young performers who have not only graced local stages but have also made their mark in theatre and film throughout North America. (Incidentally, this school year, Gray Academy will present its high school musical production, “Mary Poppins,” in March.)
In addition to the annual musical, Binder reports, Gray Academy this school year will be hosting the annual Canadian Accredited Independent Schools national varsity boys’ basketball tournament. Students and staff alike are looking forward to welcoming participating team from independent schools across the country.
Students are also looking forward to the school’s 50th Yom Ha’atzmaut Song Festival. “We are excited for our current students to continue our long tradition of celebrating Israel through music,” Binder says. “We are also hoping for a lot of participation from past performers from the first five decades.”
Among newer programs for Gray Academy high school students are internship opportunities. One is with Drs. Lorrie Kirshenbaum and Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at St. Boniface Hospital – a great opportunity for students in Grades 11 and 12 who have an interest in pursuing studies in health sciences. The other program, which was piloted last year, is run in conjunction with the Saul and Claribel Simkin Centre, and gives students in Grade 9 and up opportunities to connect weekly with Simkin residents for hands-on activities.
The corollary to that is a new program that focuses on the school’s relationships with grandparents. The Gray Academy Grandpals program encourages grandparents (and other special seniors in the lives of Gray students) to connect with and volunteer at the school. Since the program launched two years ago, Grandpals have attended special events and come into the school to volunteer for challah making, hamantaschen baking, and even with building projects such as at the new Hypedome by the ice rink, which will provide student skaters with shelter to warm up and change their skates in winter.
Lori Binder points out that, in addition to new programming, the school maintains a strong focus on affordability. “It is very important to us that no child is turned away because a family can’t afford to pay,” she says.
She notes that Manitoba is one of only a few Canadian provinces that fund independent schools such as Gray Academy, with the school receiving approximately 50% of the funding public schools receive per student. She adds that the school offers a robust Bursary Assistance program, strongly supported by funding from the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s Combined Jewish Appeal. “Over 60% of our families receive some level of bursary support,” she reports. “We work with every family to ensure that no child is ever turned away because of inability to cover the full parental contribution.”
The school also continues to play an integral role in helping families moving to Winnipeg from Israel, Argentina, Brazil and other countries to adapt to their new homes. Over the past few years, the school has expanded its EAL (English as an additional language) programming significantly to accommodate growing needs.
In an increasingly troubled world, Gray Academy remains a beacon of light, offering Jewish students and their families a warm, welcoming environment, along with a top notch Jewish and general education.
For more information about what Gray Academy has to offer and application dates, phone 204 477-7425 or email admissions@grayacademy.ca.
Local News
Veteran actor Harry Nelken first recipient of new Winnipeg Jewish Theatre Chai Legacy Award
By MYRON LOVE The Winnipeg Jewish Theatre (WJT) has introduced a new award – the Chai Legacy Award. The award recognizes individuals for their “artistry, craft and lifetimes commitment to Jewish performing arts in Manitoba” – and the first recipient is none other than Harry Nelken.
A WJT press release described the new award as “a historic first for the company.” In making Harry Nelken the first recipient of the award, the WJT says it recognizes Nelken’s “artistry, craft, and incredible dedication to Jewish performing arts in Manitoba.
“To know Harry is to know the ultimate mensch,” the WJT press release continues. “Whether he is lighting up a room with his infectious, ear-to-ear smile while cheering on his fellow cast members, or bringing profound depth to the stage, his generosity of spirit is unmatched.
In response, Nelken, a veteran of more than 45 years gracing Winnipeg’s stages as well as other performing venues across Canada, says “It was a complete surprise,” to be the first recipient of the award.
The award was presented on Sunday, September 13, during the cast party following the last performance of the WJT’s joint presentation with Rainbow Stage of “Fiddler on the Roof.” “Dan (Petrenko – the WJT’s artistic director) and Carson (Nattrass – Rainbow’s artistic director) were talking about the input of the Jewish actors in Fiddler,” Nelken recalls, “and then I heard my name. I never expected to be singled out for my acting like this. I know I mumbled something. I checked with (fellow cast member) Debby Maslowsky to make sure I said thank you. She assured me that I did.”
Nelken’s history with the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre goes back to the very beginning of the WJT. He recalls that he was cast in the WJT’s first production in 1987. Bev Aronovitch was the artistic director (and WJT founder) and the production was “Today, I am a Fountain Pen,” in which Harry played the role of the bar mitzvah’ boy’s father.
Over the years, he reports, he has appeared in 16 WJT productions. This most recent production of “Fiddler” was also the third time that he has appeared in a Rainbow Stage production of the show. His previous show performances were in 1984 and 1993. It’s also the second time that he has portrayed the rabbi. (He was cast as Lazar Wolf in the ’93 production.)
Nelken reports that he took the initiative to contact Carson Nattrass about the role of the rabbi after he learned about the planned joint production.
“I threw my shtreimel into the ring,” he jokes.
Every role, he notes, is a new learning experience for him. He prepared for the part this time by researching what life was like for a rabbi in a small eastern European shtetl.
“I realized that Jewish life has always been about resilience,” he points out. At the end of the play, after the Jews have been banished from Anatevka, when the rabbi’s son asks his father about how the Messiach will know where to find them, the rabbi replies that they will simply have to wait for him somewhere else.
“There is a great lesson to be learned here,” Nelken continues. “We don’t know what the future will bring. The question is do we put our faith in God or in man?”
Resilience is a primary feature of Harry Nelken’s career. He recounts a story about Abe Vigoda (“Fish” to some of us older readers who, when asked by Johnny Carson how he felt about becoming an overnight star, Vigoda’s response was that “I’m an overnight star but overnight was 25 years long.”)
In a much earlier interview I did with Harry for the Post, he recalled how his first acting gigs were in high school theatre. At the University of Ottawa, while studying criminology, he auditioned for and got a role in a play. From 1972 to 1979, he immersed himself in local amateur theatre.
He noted that even the busiest of working local actors – of which he has been one – barely scrape by and need a second source of income. For over 40 years, he supplemented his income by driving a cab.
”Particularly in my early years, when acting roles were sparse, driving a cab was my lifeline,” he recalls. “On occasion, even when doing a play at MTC, after the show, I would report for taxi duty for a night shift.”
In recent years roles have been fewer. In the last four years, he has been in five locally-shot film projects: two Hallmark films – “ Hanukah on Rye” and “ Haunted Wedding”; the feature film,”Normal, ”starringf Bob Odenkirk and Henry Winkler; (available on Amazon Prime); and the mini series “American Hostage,”,starring Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi (available on Crave).
Nelken’s current film project is called “Pikohowin.” It’s the true story of how in 1990, Saskatoon police officers were revealed to be driving inebriated Indigenous people in winter out of the city and depositing them on the highway. Harry has the role of judge Shiebel.
“I’m 79 now,” Nelken says. “I am no longer willing to go out of town for stage or film work unless it is for a really undeniable role. I am happy to be doing more film work. I feel energized by the work. I am still regularly auditioning for film roles,
“Most of all, I appreciate that I can look back on a fulfilling career doing what I wanted to do more than anything else.”
