Diana and Jim moved to the Napa Valley in 2017 after living in Southern California for more than 30 years. But with most of their family already here, the wine country had long ago become their second home. This blog shares their stories.

    For years, she’d ignored her creative past, sweeping it aside in the race to build a remarkable, if somewhat accidental, career. Along the way, she had lost the side of herself that loved creative ingenuity. Like many people going through the Covid crisis, she started to stress out at the intensity of her life.

   Quitting her job was terrifying, but she believed it was necessary for her sanity and her health. Her partner, Simon Brooks, a mobile security engineer, agreed she needed some rest.

   “I began to notice that I was just not happy with the real estate marketing career,” she explained in an email after we’d met for coffee at Sweetie Pies bakery in downtown Napa. “I had been working in it for so long—so much so that it was affecting my health.

   “I decided it wasn’t worth getting sick over and pulled the plug. It was time to do something that allowed me to be more creative and utilize my skills in a different way.”

   She turned to something she used to love but had put aside: art. She started with drawings of her puppy—lots of them. Then it evolved, and this is where I found Suzanne, ankle-deep in a mist of drawings involving children and animals. She was posting away on Instagram, and I enjoyed her work.

   The more I followed Suzanne the more I admired her creativity, so I left a comment telling her so. At the time, I had no clue she lived in Napa, a place that made her feel like she could drink in life in once again, a town that replenished her spirit and gave her a chance to breathe.

   When we met, she told me about her long journey that led her back to art, then to Napa and finally back to the real estate profession.

   It was a long, puzzling path. Her real estate career started by accident about 20 years ago when she was living in Florida.

   It went like this: When her boss’ wife received her real estate license, she insisted that Suzanne help her market her new business.

   So she did. Soon, Suzanne’s skills were in such great demand that she launched her own real estate marketing business.

   “Word got out that I was offering these real estate services…and I soon had enough business to quit my fulltime job and begin hiring contractors to help with the workload,” she said. “At the height of the business, I had nine contractors working for me on various tasks including website design, blogging and social media marketing.”

   In 2013, Realtor.com bought out the business but recruited her to run its social media marketing department, managing 10 people. Her annual budget grew from $40,000 to $6 million.

   About six months later, the company offered her a position as a senior director, but with a catch: She had to move to Silicon Valley. It was a dream job for many people. Just the name—Silicon Valley—screams power, success and money.

   Although Suzanne accepted the offer, it turned out not to be her dream job. Onward, she continued. The drier climate was much better for her acute asthma and bronchitis, but her life still felt out of balance.

   Living in Cupertino seemed at odds with her desire to decrease the intensity and stress. She wanted to slow down. And with the pandemic, she and her family were stuck at home. Probably like a lot of people, she was screaming inside: “Get me out of here.”

   The minute things began to reopen, she booked a weekend getaway to Carmel where they had “a lovely time,” so much so that they wanted to return the following weekend. She tried to book the home again, but it wasn’t available.

   Since Simon had never been to Napa, they decided to visit the picturesque area surrounded by vineyards. As she looked for places to stay, she couldn’t resist peeking at the real estate ads. She was surprised by the asking prices.

   “They were half the cost of Cupertino,” she said. “Next thing you know, we are putting an offer on a house in Browns Valley, and now it is the place we thoroughly love calling home.”

   Her artistic endeavors continued. Her work was selling online and later at The Bennington, the gift/antique shop in downtown Napa.

   She started drawing people’s pets on commission and those began to move, too, which made her happy. Using intensive art therapy (without even meaning to), she became relaxed and joyful again. Following a six-month hiatus to heal from back surgery, she was ready to return to real estate—primarily because she’d reopened the doors to her creativity.

   At the beginning of 2022, she started working as a Realtor with The Pujals Team at Homestead Real Estate in Napa.

   “Business is crazy busy!” she said. “So many buyers and not enough inventory. (I’m) still seeing a lot of people from the city wanting to either move up or purchase second homes and (am) expecting to see more listings coming on the market by next month.”

   This time, she knows herself better. She will never, ever starve her artistic talent again. At night she continues to draw, mostly people’s pets, which feeds her imagination and helps to honor the puppy she lost.

   Each of her creations come with “rainbow kisses,” she says, and that led her to another big decision—but this one was easy to make. Buyers or sellers who have pets receive a drawing of their animals as a gift at closing.

Suzanne Hawken can be reached at 707-210-5500.

Posted 2/26/22

   The gradual loss of my brows was yet another distressing development. While I could draw them on, they would disappear when I sweated. Other times they smeared or just melted away.

   Wearing a mask made things worse. A mask over your nose and mouth naturally highlights your eyes. My eyebrows—or lack thereof--became only more obvious. And of course wearing a mask made me sweat more.   This was just another horror for me as the eyebrows I drew myself often were crooked, or one was higher than another. Once, a coffee house employee suggested I visit the restroom because my eyebrow makeup was smeared all over my forehead. I thanked her for trying to be helpful but ran out crying.

   One day my hairdresser, Maria Mendoza, made a suggestion. She and her daughter had been following a young woman on Instagram who does microblading in her Napa shop.

   “She does beautiful work,” Maria said.

   That’s nice, I thought.  “But they can’t do microblading without any hair,” I said, which is what I’d been told.

   “Yes they can!” Maria told me.

   Out of desperation, I booked an appointment for the following day and met Laura Gomez, a lovely young woman who owns a business called Poetic Beauty. She makes people look beautiful again. The minute we met, I knew I Laura was more than an esthetician. She’s an artist and an intelligent, warm human being who wants to do whatever she can to help her clients.

   First, Laura painted on some makeup brows for me to live with for a day to see if I liked the design. It mimicked what she would be doing with microblading and permanent tattoo ink. That way I’d find out if I could live with it.

   Of course I could. I didn’t have much choice.

   We booked a two-hour appointment, during which which Laura used a razor technique that makes tiny cuts in the skin to create a feathered look as though you still have hair. I came out with beautiful brows for the first time in years.

   I believe this woman saved my life, because with all the misery that comes with immune disorders, losing my eyebrows was the last straw. It made me feel so—there are no other words to describe it—ugly and ancient.

   While Laura does many procedures involving skin care (facials, chemical peels, makeovers) with a flair for making her clients feel and look beautiful, her passion remains the art of the eyebrow. That was what I needed, because the difference she made was amazing. Fortunately, my hairdresser was following her or I would have never even known it was an option.

   Microblading seems to have appeared 10 to 25 years ago, but its origins are up in the air. (Or should I say hair?) Some say it has been used by the Japanese for decades, but others argue it originated hundreds of years ago in China or somewhere else in Asia. Whatever the truth is, I’m so glad it did.

   Laura also spent much time studying skincare and still goes to conferences to continue learning all the latest techniques. She graduated from the Paul Mitchell School with honors in skincare and makeup. According to her website, she continues to hunt for clean, healthy skin products after her own bout with toxic chemicals that nearly destroyed her skin.

   Today she’s passionate about ensuring clean and safe skincare products and has met with elected officials to encourage more protective healthcare laws.

   Believe me, this was worth the $550 investment in permanent eyebrows so I don’t have to cry anymore! It’s the most freedom I’ve had for years. When I’m about be on Facetime or Zoom, I don’t have to rush to the bathroom to draw on eyebrows that might be crooked or out of place.

   And here’s a big shout-out to my hairdesser, who understood my situation. Thank you, Maria!

Poetic Beauty is located at Napa Lashes and Brows in the Lotus Salon & Spa, 1920 Lernhart St., Napa. Phone: (925) 635-8330.

Posted 12/18/21

   Magali was 23 when she learned she had a disease that seems to affect no two people in the same way. Symptoms can be so vastly different that it’s hard to provide a roadmap.

   I "met" Magali, now 28, on Instagram. It started because I loved her name, and we quickly learned we had a few other things in common besides our disease. We both have a deep affinity for animals, and she admired my animal drawings.

   Then came Mara.  I asked her to tell me about Mara.

   “We had gone down south for my cousin’s wedding, and we flew back with a puppy,” she wrote. “My cousin’s German Shepherd had babies, and they were looking for loving homes because they couldn’t keep them.”

   It wasn’t a hard decision, really. Magali’s husband, Roberto, had always wanted a German Shepherd. They both loved animals and now they had their first child/dog. (A “fun fact” Magali loves to share: They eloped after only three months of dating!) 

   Both of them bubbled with happiness. They purchased a blue carrier for their little girl, bought her a plane ticket and voila: Mara had entered their lives.

   Neither of them knew then how much they would need that dog. Mara became skilled at many things. Loving Magali and Roberto totally was one of them. Although she cuddled only on her own terms, her companionship became one of the most important things Magali would ever need.

   Mara somehow has learned how to track Magali’s condition completely, becoming overly protective when Magali is tired and reminding her when she needs to rest (no matter how much she doesn't want to).

   “She knows when I do not feel well; she will not let anyone near me so I am able to rest,” Magali wrote in an email. “For example, if I am sleeping, she will sleep at the foot of my bed.

   "On those harder days, she will cuddle me and not leave my side. She is okay with just lying around all day and sleeping.”

   On Magali’s brighter days, her 42-pound “pup” (now nearly 6 years old) gets to play fetch or even go out—maybe to In-N-Out for a “puppy patty” or to Starbucks for a Puppucino.

   Now, six years into their marriage, Mara has drawn Magali and Roberto even closer while giving them a glimpse of what it might be like when they have children. Things are going well. I’m happy that Roberto’s and Magali’s families have been so supportive and have encouraged her to return to nursing school.

   While MS can be devastating—there is no cure—it's exciting that more drugs are on the horizon every day. It could very well be just a matter of time before MS can be prevented entirely, or at least its more serious symptoms. Eventually, there may be drugs developed that could actually reverse some of the damage to the nerves’ protective sheath.

   Fortunately for me, the first drug to help curb MS symptoms became available the year after my diagnosis. Since then, more than a dozen others have come on the market.

   The biggest difference those drugs made for me was to help keep me out of bed, where I used to lie for days on end. The best description of MS I’ve found is the one on the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s website: “a disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body.”

   That’s a pretty simple explanation of a complicated illness that can debilitate a person in so many ways, including paralysis and blindness. Yet some people don’t even know they have it. MS typically strikes between the ages of 20 and 50, when people are in the prime of their careers. According to the MS Society, it impacts about 2.3 million people worldwide, nearly half (1 million) of them in the United States.

   As for Magali, I see a bright future. She already leads a team entered in the annual MS walk here in Napa. More importantly, she now has another love in her life besides Roberto.

   The dog, she swears, has been a lifesaver. Mara helps Magali keep her head up. She calms the storm and keeps her from feeling lonely on a journey that can be intensely unsettling, not just for the patient but for those around them.

   “Mara saved me because she has loved me despite the good and bad days,” Magali said. “She’s one of the few that sees past the MS, even on days when I can’t get it together.”

   People with MS may seem perfectly healthy (in her photos Magali looks not only beautiful and fit), but they don't always feel that way. A lot can be going on beneath the surface. Sometimes it’s an intense, almost painful, tingling that feels like pins and needles attacking the body. Other times you feel confused and can’t think clearly. People like Magali and me are often in a battle to lead their lives to the fullest.

   Soon after we began talking on email and Instagram, Magali quit her fulltime job at a local nonprofit to go back to school. She’s taking classes at Napa Valley Community College with the goal of qualifying for the nursing program.

   Maybe someday I’ll meet Magali in person, but so far Covid precautions—not to mention the intensity of her schoolwork—have prevented it. When I do, I hope to also meet the incredible German shepherd that, in ways I can’t even imagine, has helped to save her life.

Posted 11/10/21