Elizabeth Weir

Elizabeth Weir grew up in England in a close family and knew the hardship of post-WW II food rationing. Sweets (candy) were rationed, and she and her three brothers cycled once a month to Cheam Village to spend their sweet rations. Her older brothers coveted her sweets and, to stop their pilfering, Elizabeth "washed each aniseed ball by licking it before returning it to the white paper bag.

She trained as a nurse at Guy's Hospital in London and nursed in South Africa at Groote Schuur Hospital, where Professor Barnard performed the first heart transplant. There, she met her future husband, an Irishman and, together, they came to live in Minnesota.

They have two sons and, now, four grandchildren. Elizabeth wrote for local newspapers, served on her city's planning commission and city council, before becoming its mayor.

When she retired from office, she took the opened time in her life to selected 60 poems from her many years of writing to create her book of poetry, "High on Table Mountain." Her collection was accepted for publication by North Star Press of St. Cloud in March, 2016 and was nominated for the 1017 Midwest Book Awards.