About Me — Colleen Sheehy Orme

I have always been motivated by love

(Photo author’s own)

I call myself a southern New Yorker much to the dismay of my true Nu Yawker buddies. I blame it on my native Brooklyn parents and a large Irish brood that makes The Big Apple home.

I am also a declared Jersey girl despite the protests of my Sea Isle sisters. I claim sixteen summers at The Shore and homeownership as my defense. It was beach-going and partying while wearing what I call my ‘out of state’ clothes lest I be the Harper Valley PTA mom.

Thankfully, anything goes in Jersey.

But I was born and raised outside of Washington, D.C., in Northern Virginia.

I grew up running through fields, hopping on horses, and jumping in creeks. It was a blissfully rural anomaly close to the city.

I am the youngest of five, with an intense loyalty to my strong single mother.

I never once felt slighted by the absence of my father. Quite the contrary, I was grateful to have one parent who loved me enough for two.

My siblings sustain me. Though my brother might say we girls can spar like The Real Housewives. It felt unnatural to leave those four walls of origin and divide and conquer.