Tonii Marie Kelly is the oldest of five kids, four of them brothers, with the scars to prove it. She grew up moving from place to place, often told on Friday she’d be in a new school on Monday. It gave her a resilience she finds handy when dealing with her own kids.
She was laid off on the 36th anniversary of working at The Miami Herald, probably because she told her boss her goals for the next year were to retire early, retire early, retire early. Still she was shocked that life chose that particular wish to be granted. (What about world peace? Winning the lottery? Losing five more pounds?)
Her marriage to One of Life’s Lucky Men has been successful. She spends it, he makes it. Tonii has always cherry-picked the tenets of feminism to suit her particular mood. If she had to choose a politically correct one-liner to describe her greatest achievement it would be: “I quit swearing and no longer use the F-word.”
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