Valerie Lumley has lived on the Monterey Peninsula all her life. She and her husband Ron now happily live in Monterey, California. When she was 25, she began a successful entrepreneurial venture as the creator of the field of independent medical insurance billing after working as an office manager and medical assistant for an eye surgeon for five years. For the next 25 years, she grew her business, traveled the world extensively, studied classical singing and foreign language – learning to sing in five languages for opera – and became highly educated in human biology and psychology.

She spent eight of these years training her voice, developing repertoire, gaining performance experience, and became a principal soloist for the Cabrillo College Opera Project, Burlingame Opera Company, and Monterey Opera Association. She also sang supportive and lead roles in musicals at the local Wharf Theater on Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey. She received kudos for all her performances, which led to her to be chosen to sing the lead role in The Merry Widow with MOA in 1996. Prior to opening night, she injured her neck at home during an exercise routine, but the show must go on. She received her usual kudos for all seven of her performances.

After the operetta, her condition was so severely exacerbated it triggered full-blown fibromyalgia (FMS), and she became bedridden for two years and housebound for ten. During this time, she developed a protocol for a lasting cure after deciding to leave the care of the medical profession that offered no hope. Through her extensive research, using herself as a case study, knowing what triggered the disease, she discovered the cure in legitimate alternative medicine. She subsequently wrote her book “Curing Chronic Fibromyalgia – Choosing What Works” and remains FMS free.

After curing herself, she reunited with the love of her musical and spiritual life, great American baritone James Tippey, in 2011. With his love and generosity, she retrained her voice and set out on her late-life venture “Viva La Diva – Keeping The Songs Alive”, and sang her concerts in retirement homes and venues throughout California, a long-standing dream of hers finally come true. She delighted her audiences with the beauty of classical songs and arias.

James and Valerie joyfully studied together while developing a new repertoire for her concert series, and much to his surprise, she became the protégé he had been searching for his entire life, and had not yet found. They also traveled around the world on cultural adventures, while Valerie sang six classical concerts for him before he passed away in her arms on December 13, 2016. Their union was all a dream come true for them both, and the fulfillment of their karmic destiny. Valerie wrote this book to honor his life and their relationship that is “always and forever.”