Mary Anne Gronningen

Mary Anne is devoted to helping elderly women create their dream lives. She was a little girl when World War II ended and her traumatized father returned. He was as good to her as he was capable, but her mother and so-called aunties punished her constantly. She was expected to relinquish her hopes and education to help her mother raise her younger brothers and sister. Mary Anne quickly learned it was easiest not to voice an opinion; she said "yes" to everything.

Her beauty led her to modeling opportunities cut short by sexual harassment. In Norway, she was assumed to be a prostitute and she had to actively protect her children from the parents of their peers. For too many years, she lived a life of fear and was embarrassed and ashamed by her past and all the secrets she was forced to carry. Only in her 70s did she break free and start to create a life of freedom for herself. Mary Anne has two children and four grandchildren. She spreads her time between her homes in Norway and Spain where she cares for her husband and their little dog, Proffen.