In 1994, a job transfer brought Florida native Trina Anderson to Tampa from Atlanta where she had worked with Xerox. Following another transfer request to Dallas in 2001, she chose to change employment and stay in Florida. Her parents live in the Cape Canaveral area. There, her mother attends Unity, and in late 1998, Trina consulted the yellow pages looking for a Unity church. She has been a regular attendee at UCC ever since.
Born in New Smyrna, Trina graduated from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green with a degree in Spanish and History. In her sophomore year, summer study in Madrid enriched her fluency in Spanish. Throughout her employment history, Trina has seldom experienced the opportunity to apply the focus of her majors. One exception, perhaps the favorite of all the positions she’s held, occurred after she married her college boyfriend and moved with him to Lafayette, LA, where a job offer awaited him. It was there, where she lived for eight years, that she loved her work as a social worker for the state of Louisiana.
Trina, who has a sister on the east coast, is the mother of two sons: Aric in Tallahassee, the father of her first grandchild Aiden, 8 months, and Aron, recently married and living in Virginia. When her youngest son Adrian was 11 and riding his bicycle on a Sunday afternoon after leaving Unity, he was struck by a car and fatally injured. If there had ever been any doubt as to the importance of Unity in her life, at this point, Trina says, “everything fell into place.” She and her sons had been coming to UCC for 18 months when young Adrian made his transition. The immeasurable support–from Leddy’s lesson the following Sunday to the grief counseling sessions with Dieter—would express for Trina the true meaning of “The House Built on Love.”
A long time member of the welcoming committee, usher and light bringer, Trina has taken many classes at UCC, and she misses Sunday services only when she is out of town.
A self-described “sci-fi person,” Trina likes action and drama in both movies and books. She also loves the orchestra and travel, annually choosing new places to visit. She particularly enjoyed a week in Sedona and looks forward to going to North Carolina for her daughter-in-law’s graduation from medical school.
As an agent at New York Life in Tampa, Trina volunteers in a group that helps grieving children who have lost at least one parent, which she says is “also very good for me,” and in a second group serving veterans and their families.
When she retires, and, because appearance belies age, that may be sooner than expected, Trina plans to move where one of her sons lives, and—wherever that may be—to find a Unity church.