Chillin' Wit'... Renee Cardwell Hughes: Life beyond the bench

She's rooting for the Steelers, but will give credit to their opponents. When she realizes that Tim Tebow, the Broncos' quarterback, has run for a touchdown, she says: "Way cool, and he took a hit, too! Very cool!"

Last May, after 16 years on the bench, Hughes became CEO of the American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter. "Part of me misses it," she says of the court. "In homicide [cases], you have the very best lawyers and phenomenal detectives."

But she's "excited for this new phase of my life," she says.

Normally, she'd be dressed in sweats to watch football - either her University of Virginia sweats (her alma mater) or her West Point sweats (her son, Alek Hughes, 21, from her now-ended 12-year marriage to state Sen. Vincent Hughes, attends the military academy).

But yesterday, having just driven back from a weekend visit with her son, she was wearing jeans, an elegant white turtleneck and a short-sleeve, knitted sweater.

She's lost 33 pounds since August 2010, when she stopped eating pasta, breads and sweets.

She goes to the gym or runs outdoors three or four days a week.

Culturally, the former judge identifies as African-American.

But actually she's one-quarter black. Her father, now deceased, was half-black, half-Cherokee. Her mother - who lives in Lynchburg, Va., where Hughes grew up - is three-quarters white, one-quarter Cherokee.

Hughes talks to her mother every day. "Life is so fragile," she says.

"It's important to let people you care about know that you care about them."

- Julie Shaw