Tough Love

Having a day job where you’re surrounded by chocolate delicacies would be enough to put most people into a permanent Zen state of mind. But not, apparently, Mary Love, who is co-owner with husband Norman of Norman Love Confections in Fort Myers.

 

Mary Love plays ice hockey twice a week at Germain Arena, partly for the exercise benefits, she says, and partly because "it’s a great way to release any pent-up aggression."

Love first tried her hand at hockey 10 years ago as a way to pass the time with other "hockey moms" while their children were playing in their own league. Back then it was field hockey, using a ball on terra firma. When first the kids and then the men infiltrated the games, they disbanded because the competition got too aggressive.

Love took three years off from the sport, and then picked it up again several years ago, this time on ice, in a coed novice league at Germain Arena.

She swears she’s a terrible ice skater and in her own words, "a pretty bad player." Nonetheless, Love serves as her team’s captain, an honor she modestly insists is because, at 48, she’s the oldest player on the team.

Besides weekly practices and games, she takes part in a skating clinic every Thursday to hone her skills and fulfill her role on the team as right wing.

"I’m supposed to score goals," she explains. "I haven’t scored one yet. But I will one day—I know it!" she says optimistically. "I think all the other teams will cheer for me when I do."

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