Nicole Friedrich is featured this week.
Nicole Friedrich is featured this week.
Occupation: Iâve been a massage therapist for 20 years, and I specialize in athletic massage and prenatal and labor massage.
Family: My husband, Richard, and I have been married for 17 years. Heâs a commercial pilot. We have two girls. Jenna is 13 and at Newtown Middle School and Erica is 7 and at Middle Gate Elementary.
Pets: Butterscotch is a standard poodle that is 4 years old, and we have one adopted cat, our little gray Smokey. She showed up in bad shape on our back doorstep one day and we took her in and got her better. Sheâs been with us since.
How long have you lived in Newtown? Weâve been here for 20 years. We bought our home the spring of 1990.
What do you like to do in your free time? Travel is number one; and getting together with friends. I love to run, work out, and do yoga. I try to fit in physical exercise every day. I like to garden, mainly flowers. We had an enormous vegetable garden until the deer made it nearly impossible. Long ago I used to knit, quilt, and make small, needle-felted fairies and gnomes. And before that, I used to do competitive trail riding of three-day events covering 100 miles at a time. It was unbelievably fun, but hard to do that when youâre a mom. And I read whenever I have time.
What are you reading now? Right now Iâm reading The Help by Katherine Stockett. These characters were so strong to persevere and survive and the characters â two black women and one white woman in the 60s in Mississippi â are so vivid as they deal with painful racial issues. My two other favorite books of my whole life are The Physician by Noah Gorden, about a Christian manâs journey to become a physician in 11th century England, and One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus, an historical fiction novel about a proposed 1875 treaty between the white government and the Cheyenne to integrate the whites and American Indians.
Do you have a favorite travel destination? My very favorite would be France. We developed a deep friendship with a foreign exchange student who lived with us for ten days, four years ago. Her parents invited us to visit in southern France and weâve had a love affair with the language and culture ever since. My children and I are all studying the French language currently.
What is the best thing about Newtown? There are so many thingsâ¦. But the fact that itâs so close to everything and still has a rural feel, without being too remote. Itâs a wonderful family town.
Who do you most admire? My mother, for doing a great job raising me under adverse conditions, and always being my ally. And for being a three-time cancer survivor. I admire my husband, too. He is a man of extreme work ethics and unending energy, who can fix anything. He has a deep kindness underneath that tough shell.
Do you have a personal philosophy? Itâs four quotes: Random acts of kindness; pay it forward; be kind to get kind; and smile when you answer the phone.
Do you have a guilty pleasure? My most recent one was a five-day getaway for a yoga retreat in the Dominican Republic with five awesome friends. It was amazing.