About Veronica @ Veronica's Passions

My name is Veronica Roser and I'm originally from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I lived in the FL Keys 20 yrs and now I've lived in the Appalachian Mountains 20 yrs. I am a retired marine scientist and professional scuba diver of 20 yrs and I'm retired USMM & Navy Reserve.

I've been and antique and designer vintage jewelry collector and researcher for 40 yrs. I got the jewelry collecting bug from my mother and grandmother and from the many ports of call I visited around the world working on super tankers. I've also studied and collected in many other areas of antiques and vintage wares. I sell strictly from my website GreatVintageJewelry.com that has been online since 2005. I have thousands of happy collectors and customers worldwide!

At this point in time, I'm selling everything I own. I'm selling all my collections of antique and designer vintage jewelry and antique and vintage home decor. Idk. Maybe buy a new bike and hit the road and go live a different life now!

We live in such a different world today. It's actually very hard to find a website where you can talk to a real person. I know: It's sad and frustrating. Im old school and still take phone calls!

I welcome you to email, text my cell, or call me personally during business hours Any day of the week, 9 am - 8 pm EST Daily
Cell: 828-773-4053 or EMAIL HERE

I loved power boats, crabbing boats, and sailing. I worked for a short time for the famous boat builder Charlie Morgan in Annapolis, and raced sloops in the SORC when I was 16. In 1977, I was the first woman to ever windsurfer across the Chesapeake Bay.

I also grew up as a competitive swimmer and diver. I think I was the first woman to swim across the Chesapeake Bay. I did that one day on a whim when I was 15, and thankfully my parents never found out because I almost got ran over by a ship.

At the request of my teachers, my parents sent me to boarding schools. I earned a free scholarship to the college of my choice but at that time in the 1970s, there were NO jobs for women, even with college degrees.

I asked my father what I should do. He gave me the best advice a father could ever give when he said to me, " I will be proud of you no matter what you do, but always do what makes you happy, and you'll never have any regrets." That's when I told him I had just been accepted to the Naval Academy, the first year they accepted women, and I think he almost had a heart attack.

I dated a couple of guys at the Academy, and I taught windsurfing there one summer too, and the whole 4 yr long military scene wasn't that appealing to me - and the fact there was only going to be 12 women and 3000 men.

So, I went to a military maritime school in southern Maryland instead and joined the US Merchant Marines at age 18. They sent my butt out to sea, really fast.

For the next 4 yrs, I lived on super tankers running crude oil around the world. I became certified to work in every department on the ship. As an able body seaman, I often steered the ship at sea and even up the mighty Miss-a-sip. I learned everything a mariner could learn and navigated across the ocean with a compass and by the stars. (We had NO computers back then.)

I also took remote study courses with Unv. Of Miami for 3 years until they ran out of books to send me on everything relating to oceanography and marine sciences.

The last ship I was on, I was drafted into the Navy Reserves Military Sea-lift Command by Reagan. Next thing I knew, we were running jet fuel from the Caribbean around Capetown to the Persian Gulf. We went in at night, with no lights on, and covertly pumped off 600,000 barrels under high pressure in 8 hours, running side by side to a Navy fuel vessel.

That was enough for me! After 3 tours in the Persian Gulf War, I ran down the gangway at Truman Annex in Key West in 1983, and I never looked back.

I just wanted to be like Hemingway. Go fishing and write a novel or two or three. But then I accidentally went to work as a salvage diver, recovering treasure from a Spanish Galleon that sunk off the Dry Tortugas in 1677.

I met a lot of wild characters in Key West in the 1980's, but one person who found me snorkeling one day, asked if I could help him. He wanted to buy some marine specimens. He was the curator of Miami Seaquarium.

The next thing I knew, I was working for an aquaculture facility breeding tropical fish and seahorses in captivity and on the side, I was training dolphins.

On a whim, and with the help of my parents for the down payment, I bought a piece of commercial property. I built a large saltwater holding facility. 16 years passed by, and I had done over 14,000 dives, and shipped live marine specimens to almost every zoo and public aquarium in the world.

For several reasons, I sold everything in 1999 and moved to the NC mountains. I started a business online for a hobby of mine, and I started a residential construction business. That went on for 20 years.

GreatVintageJewelry.com is the ecommerce site I've had for 20 years.
Veronica's Passions is the new updated version of that site.

All profits from both sites are donated to Lady Dragon Rider, my children's charity.

But all my life I never knew how lucky I was. Karma is a boomerang, and you'll always get back what you reflect. No one can duck, cover, or run, when He throws that boomerang back. I've been so lucky in life, I'm forever grateful.

All my life I've wanted to create a charity as my legacy. I wanted it to be for the ocean, but some of my old friends beat me to the punch, like Ric O'barry and Paul Watson. I'm not even sure the ocean can be saved at this point, but Ric and Paul have made a huge difference in the world.

You only get this life once. I know the real meaning of life. It is to help others in any way you can and to always act with kindness, compassion, and empathy for those who have less than you, or who are caught in trauma and addictions and cant find their way through. Just do the best you can with those who want your help, is all you can do.

The purpose of life is to realize : Take everything you own, and give it back. Project that which you want to see in others as a living example. To always have mercy and grace and know that Satan was kicked out of heaven for good reason.

So no, I don't want recognition, validation, or admiration for the simple measure of starting a children's charity as my legacy. All I want is for the lessons of giving to live on long after me. I want generational curses to be exposed and recognized within the teachings of philosophy, psychology, and spirituality.

I want the motto "I Ride the Dragons So Others Can Fly" to live on to represent, "Bless Others, and You Will Be Blessed."

Only when you give love and respect first,
can it ever come back to you.

GreatVintageJewelry.com since 2000

About Veronica @ Veronica's Passions

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