Occupation: I was a dental hygienist until I retired and then I went into the financial and insurance area of dentistry and in medical psychiatry for a while in New Jersey and Manhattan. I retired 15 years ago.

Family: My husband, Frank; we’ve been married 44 years this past November. I have a daughter, Lisa, from South Salem, N.Y., and my sons, John from Woodcliff Lake, N.J., Richard from Brooklyn, and Frank in Alabama.

Pets: Trinket is my shih-tzu. Trinket is 9 years old. We have a Maine Coon cat, too. His name is Zeke.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We have lived here since 1997.

What do you like to do in your free time? My poetry group [Loose Women Poets’ Society] is very important to me. I love to garden and for a condominium, I have quite a bit of ground, so I can really have a good time out there. I do knitting, crocheting, and British needlepoint, which is done in a cross-stitch. It is done on a piece of canvas, not linen, so it doesn’t stretch out of shape. I also have made porcelain fashion lady dolls. I make the whole face — give them dimples or a cleft in the chin. I seek material and period pieces to go with her. I make the costumes when I can, paint the faces, place the wigs, decide on the character. Who is she to me?  The doll has a life to me. It is really a labor of love.

Do you have a favorite writer? Probably my cousin, Irving Stone. I loved the way he wrote. He wrote about real people, like Van Gogh in The Agony and The Ecstasy. He took a little poetic license. He did Michelangelo, Jack London, John Freemont’s wife. It was called fictional biography.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? I guess that would be Italy. I like the southern part of Italy. I like the culture of the Greek that moved north, so they [southern Italians] had the ancient history of the Greeks. “Criso” means gold in Greek, so Crisona means gold.

What is the best thing about Newtown? This hidden culture of such talented people. Coming from New York, you think it’s nowhere else, but it is here, so quietly. There is such acceptance here of different cultures, different ethnicities. There’s something special about New England altogether.

Do you carry anything interesting in your purse? I have so much junk in there. I spend half my life looking for my car keys. It’s a mess!

What is your personal philosophy? Not to be judgmental. To live and let live and to have a good listening ear; to really hear what people are saying.

What is the most important lesson you have learned? To listen and keep my mouth shut.

SNAPSHOT: Joan Crisona