Jo Stephanie Lill
Stevie Lill Symons
Spouse is Bill Symons
10647 Wildwood Drive
Richland, MI 49083
269-377-8006
When I left MSU, I found the last teaching job available in Michigan. Remember the teacher glut? It was a total culture shock leaving East Lansing for Kalkaska. ELHS had it all. Kalkaska High School was so poor that it couldn’t offer two years of shop class. Only 3% of the students had college aspirations and I taught (or tried to teach) college-bound classes. Sadly, I realized that I wasn’t cut out for teaching. So much for my degree in education----
I wonder how many of us girls took the Female Interest Test at MSU. Remember the choices we had? Secretary, Nurse, or Teacher. I wasn’t a rebel enough--back then-- to take the Male Interest Test.
In Kalamazoo, I found my niche in Real Estate and started rehabbing rental property. After a divorce, the “house” business allowed me
to arrange my schedule around two small children. For the next 38 years, I was self-employed. As a Real Estate Broker, I built a large property management business. After selling my company, I enjoyed building homes as a Residential Builder, dba Wildwood Construction and Design. I‘ve always owned rental property and even now we rent our home every winter while we travel.
Since the 80’s I’ve lived in the same knotty-pine cottage on Gull Lake, northeast of Kalamazoo. My little town of Richland is closely-knit with wonderful schools and traditions. I started a Women’s Soccer League that is still going strong thirty years later. All of our kids and dogs used to come to the games and now our children’s children are playing on the sidelines. Both of my kids went through Gull Lake Schools and WMU’s flight program. My daughter is a now a pilot for American out of Chicago, living here in Richland, and my son flies for Southwest based in Phoenix.
I married my sweetie, Bill, when I was fifty and we have a delightful blended growing family. We’ve adopted Hemet in southern CA as our winter home because my Mom lives there, and we spend the summers at our cottage in Richland. We enjoy traveling the country in our RV between the two destinations, devising new routes every year. Bill drives. I navigate and play word games.
Our home golf course, Gull Lake View, is already a popular golf destination. Hemet, CA, with it’s low greens fees, is a hidden gem just over the mountains from Palm Springs. Our favorite exercise is to walk 18 holes. Relaxing at the 19th hole is our favorite recreation. We also enjoy untangling the cats on their leashes. Isn’t retirement grand?