Who’s the author of this site?
My name is Mary Pope-Handy. I’m a cradle Catholic with a background in theology, a wife, mom, Realtor, and real estate writer.
- I’m a Silicon Valley native, having been born at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose.
- I’m happily married to Jim Handy (1985) with two adult kids, both graduates of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. They attended and graduated from Bellarmine College Prep and Notre Dame High School, both in San Jose.
- I hold a BA in Religious Studies from Gonzaga University and an MA in Systematic Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (now part of Santa Clara University). My master’s thesis was on marriage, divorce, divorce ministry and annulment. I wrote it while engaged, which raised some eyebrows – but in truth I learned a lot and I think it has helped my marriage! I have a very big soft spot for anyone who feels alienated from the church, and my thesis was an effort to better understand, and hopefully to help, at least some of them. When I hear Pope Francis speak on this topic, I almost think he read my thesis 🙂
- I come from an extended Irish-Catholic family where the priorities were faith, family & education. My maternal grandparents, Eleanor and Michael Buckley, had a lot to do with my paying attention at Mass and feeling like God cared about me, personally, and that each of us matters… I really understood from them that the family is the “first church” community and that family members are the most important teachers of the faith.
- Other influences in my life include family members in various religious orders, including Carmelite, Notre Dame de Namur, Christian Brothers and Jesuit. My family’s also been touched by association with Maryknoll (my sister was a lay volunteer in Venezuela for several years) and other volunteer groups of lay people. But if you don’t like this blog, please don’t hold it against any of them.
- Prior to having kids, I enjoyed working as a religion teacher in Catholic high schools in California.
- I’ve had experience with many other types of ministry with the sick, children, and grieving individuals is part of my background as well (mostly volunteer work).
- Since 1993 I have been in business selling residential real estate in the west valley areas of Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, and San Jose primarily (Cambrian and Almaden), but working all of Santa Clara County and sometimes even a bit beyond. I love helping nice folks to buy and sell homes. Most of my business is based on repeat and referral clients, but also I meet wonderful people who find me through my real estate blogs. I’m an education junkie and love to share what I’ve learned with my clients – most of whom become my friends.
- In 2021 my daughter, Clair, went from assisting me to getting her license and partnering with me.
- In my free time, I love to enjoy walks in my neighborhood, write, see movies or go to plays or musicals, keep up with family and friends, collect ghost stories (for another blog, HauntedRealEstate.com) practice my photography and as time and budget allow, travel. (Due to family ties, I am a huge Patriots fan but also love the 49ers.) I spent my junior year of college in Florence, Italy and speak a little Italian even now. Although genetically I’m Irish, English & Welch, my stomach and my heart seem to think I’m Italian. I have seen some of Italy but not nearly enough. I have had the pleasure to visit much of Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands), plus England, Ireland, Israel, Greece, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Tahiti. My travel “wish list” is long.
If you haven’t had enough, you can read more about my background at either of my two main realty websites:
https://popehandy.com/about-mary-pope-handy/
https://www.valleyofheartsdelight.com/About
Or connect with me on twitter:
https://www.Twitter.com/MaryPopeHandy (a little bit of everything, posting often)
https://www.Twitter.com/SVCatholic (posting religious stuff, but almost never)