​ Betty was born in Lisbon, Portugal. The family of five moved to the Boston area when she was five years old. Betty grew up surrounded by music and delicious home-cooked Portuguese food, still a central core of her life. She earned Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Boston University’s School for the Arts.

On a family trip to Europe she fell in love with the mountains of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Determined to study abroad, she pursued and won a Rotary Fellowship for post-graduate study in Salzburg, Austria. She continued to major in piano performance and added a minor in travel and dessert testing. In Salzburg Betty befriended a violinist who, years later, introduced her to Uli, the man she fell in love with. Luckily, the feeling was mutual. After 32 years of dating, living together, marriage and two children, they still love each other—and they’re still friends with the violinist. Her current writing project is a memoir, Life with Uli, about life with her German husband. With all their adventures, there’s always another chapter to write!