Arts & Style

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When I first came to Durham? Well, of course, coming from New Orleans initially, my first reaction was, “I’m going home.” It was just a different vibe. But after I go home to New Orleans now, and I see my family for a while, then I’m ready to come back. This is the home that my kids know. This is home for them, so it’s become home to me.

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What attracted me to Bill initially, really, was his mind. I guess growing up in the type of family that I had, I really had to be with somebody who could stimulate my mind. Bill reads a lot and is extremely intelligent. And he can be funny. He has a sense of humor if you catch him at the right time. The first date we went on, you know what we did? Roller-skating. That was my idea. I said, you want to go somewhere? I’m going roller-skating. And he did well. If he puts his mind to it, that’s it. The other thing that attracted me to him and what I still admire is that he is a man of his word. If he tells you, yes, he’s going to do something, you can count on it. If he tells you no, you can count on that, too.

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When we were at IBM a lot of people didn’t even know we were married. Our personalities are so different. I’m very outgoing, and he’s very reserved. A lot of people said, ‘You and Bill? I never put that together.” I said, “Well, see? Opposites attract.” We balance each other out.

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Bill works very, very hard. But I always tell him, “You need to learn to take compliments when people give them to you.” Because you’ve worked hard and you’ve earned it. You’ve really given your life, and my life, to Durham. I was teasing him about the Marry Durham thing. I said, “You’re already married to Durham.”

The general population doesn’t understand the sacrifices that a family makes to support a person who chooses a political life. Bill could have been much wealthier if he had chosen to stay at IBM and keep going up the ladder where he was. But he wanted to be in Durham and help to build Durham. There are negatives because a lot of people make a lot of untrue assumptions about you. I can remember when we had the big ice storm. A lot of people assumed that we were the first ones to get our power on. We were without power for a week. It’s those kinds of assumptions that in some ways really work against you. As a wife, I’ve pretty much had to be a single parent in a lot of ways for Bill to be able to do what he does. And also to keep your life separate. I work very hard to keep a balance. To have accomplished the things that he’s accomplished, he brought the job home a lot. If I was a more dependant person, it wouldn’t have worked.