COVER STORY { by karen werner } MAY/JUN 2022 | 36 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA

A puzzle sits on the dining room table in Amanda Garmany’s Paradise Valley home. One thousand pieces are waiting to transform into a New England village scene from the 1700s. “I love puzzles,” Garmany said. “My mother has done them my entire life. I used to get so annoyed with those stupid puzzles on the table. And then probably about 10 or 12 years ago, I don’t know what it was, I just started doing a puzzle.” It’s a pattern Garmany has followed before — not appreciating the family plan and then coming around to follow it herself. Whether it was where she lived or how she worked, it turns out that family maybe knows best. Garmany grew up a self-described “unicorn,” a native Arizonan born at Mesa Lutheran Hospital and raised in the East Valley. Her parents met in Mazatlan when her mom — an ASU gymnast and education major on spring break — met her dad, who was from a small Mexican village nearby. He moved to Arizona when they got engaged. “My parents weren’t wealthy. My mother was a teacher and my father was a construction worker. We never went without, but we didn’t have luxuries,” Garmany said. It was a fun, busy childhood full of activities. Garmany was a competitive dancer, played tennis, rode horses and was a cheerleader. The family frequently traveled to Mexico to visit her father’s family and the East Coast to visit her mother’s. Zest for Life Amanda Garmany talks family, heart health and the power of puzzles FRONTDOORS MEDIA | 37 | MAY/JUN 2022