Born and raised in Kennebunk Maine, Maureen Becklund came to Florida 21 years ago. At 49, “surprised” with a pending divorce, she was persuaded by her son, a Florida college student, to begin a new life in a warmer climate.
Maureen chose Clearwater because the Becklunds owned, in Kennebunk, a water purification company called Clearwater Systems. She flew down and purchased the house that she lives in today.
“Here I am,” Maureen recalls, “in an unfamiliar place without a stick of furniture, a dish or even a bath towel. And, no job! So, I bought a lawn chair and am sitting in my living room, trying to decide what my next chapter will be, and, can I make it as a single middle-aged woman? I needed time to test myself, so I booked a six-week trip on the Orient Express. Traveling alone, not speaking any of the languages, and figuring out the foreign currencies was quite liberating.”
She came home, fully confident of her survival skills, bought necessary household staples, went on one interview and was hired as Marketing Director at Pinecrest Place, a Largo retirement community. Five years ago, Maureen retired and now spends her days volunteering, at Unity, Francis Wilson Playhouse, food banks, garden clubs and Random Acts of Flowers.
Once, she got the traveling bug, Maureen went on to visit 77 countries, always traveling alone on adventure trips, including archeological digs in Egypt and Pompeii, helping African natives build huts from cow dung, studying with monks in Tibet and Ashram communities in India and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. A photo she submitted to NAT GEO won her a trip with the NAT GEO cameraman and aborigine guides looking for the white spirit bear. She took the picture while riding on a camel in the Sahara where she saw a woman, wearing a niqab, doing her laundry by a well.
Maureen has found something wonderful in each of her travels, discovering more similarities than differences in people all over the world. The opportunity to visit in homes of other cultures and to witness unfamiliar but beautiful rituals, like the powerful Muslim call to prayer, are unforgettable experiences.
Having attended a small Unity church in Maine, in Clearwater, Maureen began coming to UCC, where she knew, after hearing Leddy speak, that she had found a home. She started volunteering and taking classes and now serves as a greeter and Lightbringer. “Over the 21 years I have attended this church, I have learned a lot and made a lot of wonderful friends,” she says. “All in all, the second half of my life has been more fulfilling, joyful and productive than I ever thought it could be, so I tell everyone, step out on faith and you never know who you will meet or what adventure awaits you, but you will never look back and say, “I wish I had.”