I always find it interesting to meet someone who transferred from one career into something they never anticipated and never studied in college, possibly because I myself wound up in journalism by accident. I called a wrong number after I dropped out of Hahnemann Medical College and worked for several years for the Philadelphia Health Department.

Another case in point: Barbara Lang Dundon, who has lived with her architect husband, Jack, at Cathedral Village in Roxborough for six years, after living in West Mt. Airy for 29 years, and before that, in Chestnut Hill for five years. The Dundons have been married for more than three decades.

Barbara Dundon’s career change narrative just might be unique. A graduate of the University of Kansas with a certificate in teaching, Dundon came to Philadelphia in 1970 and wound up teaching English at what is now Drexel Hill Middle School, then demonstrated products at Wanamaker’s Department Store and also worked as a librarian for an insurance company.

But Dundon made a sharp right turn when she was arrested for having a pile of unpaid parking tickets in 1973. (She believed someone who told her that “No one pays parking tickets in Philadelphia.”) She owed the city $1,500.

”A cop came to the door of my fourth floor apartment and said, ‘Make it easy on yourself,’ just like you’d see on a TV show,” Dundon said. “I wound up paying half of what I owed, $750. I had never written anything for money before, but I thought I had a good story, so I contacted the editor of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, ‘Today,’ and said I wanted to write an article about being arrested for unpaid parking tickets.

“The editor said OK, so I wrote the article, and the editor ran it. I was paid $750 for the article, exactly what I paid for the tickets,” she said. “That article inspired me to do more writing. You might say it was my ‘ticket’ out of my previous jobs and helped me get a public relations job with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) for two years, followed by seven years in public relations at Penn Presbyterian Hospital.”

Dundon also worked with clients for a design studio for nine years and then became executive director for Need in Deed, an education nonprofit founded in 1987 by three St. Martin-in-the-Fields parishioners. She left in 2012 to start “I’mtellinya!,” an audio consultancy. She was an oral historian for organizations including Morris Arboretum and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society until the pandemic started.

Through Dundon’s many career changes, living in Northwest Philadelphia has been a constant. The Dundons longest stint, in Mt. Airy, was a precursor to their most recent stop in Roxborough.

“It was hard to move because we loved Mt. Airy,” Dundon said last week, “but Jack was 80, I was 72, and our house had steep steps. I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk and landed squarely on my arm, which snapped on impact like a crisp string bean. Two surgeries later, during my convalescence, Jack and I decided to leave our 150-year-old house with its steep stairs and bathroom on the second floor. It was an emotionally wrenching move that catapulted me into old age. We have met many wonderful people here at Cathedral Village, but then they die.”

At the age of 70, Dundon enrolled in a drawing class, something she had never done. “Roger Allen, a designer, told me to open an Instagram account. So I posted my work all the time. But I broke the arm I draw with. So I began drawing with my non-dominant hand (right).

“That was a life-changing event. I can now draw with either hand, and that motivated me to do my first book, ‘Home Alone,’ since so many people here at Cathedral Village live alone,” she continued. “One thing I have learned is that when you are old, you can do anything you want, even though it sucks to be old.”

In January 2025, Dundon’s art work was exhibited in a solo show at Cathedral Village. All 60 pieces sold. Dundon also recently published her second book, “Waking Up Old,” which she calls “an illustrated ballad for Baby Boomers and those who love them.” The book is an extended poem with illustrations that are charming, amusing and extremely clever. At an April 25 book signing event at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Chestnut Hill, 90 people showed up, and Dundon sold out all 200 books she had available. All proceeds from the book go to the “Stephen Ministry” at St. Martin.

Dundon is a trained Stephen Minister, a calling that is part of Stephen Ministries, a nonprofit organization, founded in 1975, that provides “one-on-one confidential Christian care to individuals experiencing traumatic difficulties such as grief, divorce, sudden job loss or illness. It operates in over 12,000 congregations across 170-plus denominations, offering emotional and spiritual support, often through weekly meetings.”

”Waking Up Old” can be obtained at St. Martin on Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 215-247-7466 or email office@stmartinec.org. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.