In a former life, Beth worked for 27 years as a special education teacher and teacher consultant in the Wausau, WI area. She has a BS in special education (Cognitive Disabilities and Regular Education) and an MSE in Behavior Disorders. She taught Middle School and High School students with significant social, emotional and behavioral challenges (half the students were going through puberty, half the staff were going through menopause, but much easier than elementary grades where it feels like being on an ant hill, and you‘re the sugar cube). Beth provided consultation and support to 100+ staff in five rural school districts…a job she was well suited for and loved. 

Life took an unexpected turn when Beth was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 1992. She came within six months of dying in 1995 and lost a significant amount of eyesight in the process. A vast array of study and research, participation in clinical trials,  Native American sweat lodge ceremonies, complementary therapies and prayer got her through the darkest of times until new medications pulled her back from the brink of death.

Written by a friend of Beth‘s:
“While most people have a fling with life, Beth Bye is in the process of writing her own love story (“Back From the Brink of Beth“). Even the worst of days are simply good days. The accumulation of time for many is to be dreaded, but for Beth it is a testament to her triumph over near death. She not only flirted with death, she kissed death smack on the lips.

Now, Beth is having the last laugh. While her life is far from ideal, it is a rich and flavorful journey, peppered with purpose and satisfaction. She is the summation of her experiences, both good and bad. Beth is a person who unconditionally appreciates life, each day seeking new purpose and fulfillment. She isn’t just coping; she’s inventing ways to be happy.

Beth can poke fun at herself while compassionately extending help and comfort to individuals facing many of the same challenges that she has faced and ones that she continues to endure.”

Beth Bye A.D. (after death) has:

• volunteered as a teacher of English as a Second Language classes to adults where she met two Serbian artists who invited her to travel to their country;
• has gone on a hot air balloon ride;
• participates regularly in Native American healing ceremonies;
• coordinates an annual day camp for kids with disabilities;
• adopted a shelter cat named Kitty and a yellow lab rescue dog named Buddy;
• peddles locally made artisan cheese at the farmer's market;
• has kayaked and swam in the Bioluminescent Bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico with her niece
• has become an ordained minister and officiated at her nephew's wedding;
• loves reruns of the Andy Griffith Show, dark chocolate and salmon;
• loves flea markets, auctions, and shopping at consignment stores with her sister;
• hopes to learn to play the dulcimer;
• is thankful for her family and friends and for every new day, every breath of life.

Beth has been a collector of "things" as long as she can remember…as a child it was "Wishneck" trolls and cat poems…as an adult: heart-shaped and perfectly round stones, spectacularly colored fall leaves, drift wood, acorns and feathers, her father's boyhood Tommy Tucker watch, miniature harmonica and leather pouch filled with clay marbles, old keys and Civil War letters, her Grandpa Red's class ring and 1921 high school graduation program, antique mesh purses and vintage hats, rhinestone-studded cat glasses, pointy toed Victorian shoes from Bethesda thrift shop, a lucky coin from the Chicago World's Fair, a hand-carved wooden instrument from a Belgrade flea market, a small ceramic Scotty dog playing a tuba, a lucky clay "friendship" pig from a Chilean doctor friend.