Story by Cindy Miller (BBO: cindymille)

I found bridge right before COVID found the world, but let me begin at the beginning. As a teenager in the late 60’s my parents played bridge quite often, always as a social gathering. No competition but there were often two tables on a Saturday evening with lots of laughter, fun and noshing. They would “make” my sister and me play as a fourth sometimes, not bothering to tell us the rules. Often, we were the “dummy”, which I totally was. I didn’t understand counting points or tricks, let alone what a sans hand or a convention was.

Fast forward to February 2020, when I talked my husband into learning bridge. He is not a game player and he was reluctant. He was newly retired and in trying to entice me to retire as well, he thought a new hobby together might work. Four lessons in, the lockdown came. I continued on my own, with the computer and Bridge Better (1) by Barry Westra and waited impatiently for the class to begin again. That took 1 ½ years, and after the first four lessons (for the second time) our teacher had a bad fall and was hospitalized for a total of 3 months.

A substitute was found, but after a few more lessons, there was another lockdown. We broke the class down into two groups and continued to play in person together with online help from the substitute teacher and from the Barry books. It was fun and frustrating at the same time, but somehow, we “graduated” in 2023 and had managed to take three years to do a bridge class that was meant to be only a year.

I now play in a competition twice a week. My husband is my partner on Mondays and I have another partner on Thursdays. Like my mother, after my dad passed away, I get a little fanatic. Both my husband and partner have told me to dim it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t play with me anymore.

I have toned it down a bit (probably not enough for them) and I enjoy the game immensely. Not only do I play twice a week in the competition, but I also help in the bridge course that our club offers, am on the club board and I play a few times a month in a purely social situation like my parents did. My biggest regrets are that my parents don’t know about my bridge life and I can’t call my mom and tell her about a stupid bid that I made, or how I made a brilliant counterplay. But I know somehow, she knows.