Mary was born in Boca Raton and attended Boca Raton High School, where she participated in many social activities and helped female professionals gain workplace rights. After graduating, she worked at the Delray Beach Hospital for many years. After reaching fifty years of age, she switched to a primarily vegetarian diet: she mostly consumed fish, tofu, beans, while having chicken once or twice a week. However, she loved eating spicy food and nuts. She had been very healthy until she hit menopause, when she developed inflammation in the eyes, intestinal membranes, and feet.
At the age of fifty, she was diagnosed with macular degeneration in her right eye at the Boca Raton Regional Hospital and began acupuncture treatments at the Fort Lauderdale Acupuncture School. Her left eye retina was also detached three times and required surgery at the West Palm Beach Hospital. The scar tissue that accumulated as a result of these multiple surgeries ultimately caused all vision to be lost in her left eye. While the wet macular degeneration in her right eye was severe, she refused to have medicine injected into her eye. She also developed multiple hernias in her abdominal area which required repair surgery, and foot neuropathy as a result of her surgery and high spicy food intake.
At the age of ninety, she began acupuncture treatment for her right eye at the Boca Raton Acupuncture Clinic. After just four treatments, she began to feel more energized and became more active socially, playing cards with her friends at her independent living community in Boynton Beach. Her acupuncturist also recommended reducing her spicy food consumption in order to reduce the inflammation in her intestines and her retinas. After four years of biweekly acupuncture treatment and radical diet changes, she was able to drastically improve her digestion and slow down her macular degeneration. Mary will soon celebrate her 95th birthday, and still drives, walks without a cane, and continues to live a healthy and active life.