December 22, 1943 to September 1, 2014

Retired Elementary Teacher
Spouse: Rodney
2 Children plus 3 Children (my age) of my husband's
3 Grandchildren plus 4 Grandchildren of my husband's
1 Great-grandchild plus 3 Great-granddaughters
Information update: 9/24/10

The summer after graduation I got a job as a clerk at the Minnesota Woolen Store and worked there until UMD started the fall quarter.  I attended UMD fall quarter and started winter quarter when I decided I should quit school and go to work to have some money for when I got married the next summer.  I had met an airman from a radar site at Baudette, MN. and we were engaged to be married on June 9, 1962.  I worked as a nurse's aide at St. Mary's Hospital until I eloped in March and went to live in Baudette.  The following fall, my husband was sent overseas and I lived at home with my parents and went back to work at St. Mary's for the next 18 months.  When he returned stateside he was discharged and we moved to Shelton, Washington, a small (very small) town near Olympia, the state capitol.

After living and working in Shelton for about two years, Mike got the job he always wanted and became a police officer in Olympia, Washington, so we moved to Olympia. I worked at the local hospital, first as a nurses aide, and later as a central supply clerk, moving up to the position of central supply technician.  During the early years in Olympia we had two daughters and as they grew we became involved in school activities, Girls Scouts, and PTA, following the example of my mother.  We spent a lot of time fishing on Puget Sound and making a few trips back to Duluth to visit my parents.  I also changed jobs once again and became a teacher's aid (now called educational assistant) at a local middle school.  A job I dearly loved!

After the death of my father, his words of advice were rumbling around in my head and I decided it was time to go back to school and get the teaching certificate I had started out to earn oh, so many years before.  At 35 I re-entered college and just after my 40th birthday had achieved my goal of becoming a teacher.  Actual jobs however, were very difficult to find and I worked as a substitute teacher for two years, the second year doing two different half-year stints, at different schools.  The third year, finally, I found a half-time teaching position, and worked for the State of Washington as a research analyst the other half of my day, driving between the two positions on my lunch hour.  These jobs were a great blessing because my marriage of 25 years had ended and money was tight.

The following year a full time position opened up and I was now a teacher, with my own classroom and students I didn't have to share with anyone.  I was thrilled.  My girls were starting out on their own and grandchildren were not far behind.  It was a good life.  My school was the one school in the district that served students from the local homeless shelters or those whose family was living on the street.  It brought some interesting challenges as well as some wonderful rewards.  We had good programs to help the children make the change from "home" to school each day and to support the families also.

Seven years after my divorce, I met a man at church who I knew was older but he was such a gentleman and so kind to me that age wasn't a factor.  One day when we were walking around our beautiful Capitol Lake, I asked him just how old he really was, and I nearly fell over when he replied he was born in 1918!  He really didn't (and still doesn't) look his age!  His children are my age, in fact, his oldest daughter is nearly a full year older than I am.  This hasn't been a problem for us at all, as his children are my friends, and his grandchildren are around the ages of my girls, and our great-granddaughters, except for the oldest, are all about the same age.  We  have wonderful family get-togethers for special birthdays, and the holidays which are enjoyed by all, besides visiting together with one family group or another all year long.

I had become interested in quilting during this time and brought that interest into the classroom.  My students drew their own designs on a specific topic, I transferred them to fabric and they each embroidered their own square.  I then constructed a quilt top, with Rod's help. At first the students tied the quilts, but after a year or two of doing this, a friend loaned me a quilting frame and I set it up in the classroom.  I taught the students to quilt "in the ditch" and around the embroidery and we turned out some very fine quilts.  We even had a quilting bee one Saturday in the spring, when parents were encouraged to come to school and quilt with their child.  The students were thrilled to be abl