OUR CLASS NURSES

In interviewing Chris Large Hawkins and hearing about her nursing career, I stopped to think about how many of our classmates went into the profession of nursing. I came up with several and decided to briefly profile their careers here.

BECKY HAINES...

went to Santa Fe Community College late in life, obtaining an ADN (associate degree of nursing) a year after her daughter graduated from the same college. 

She then worked in labor and delivery for 26 years and was cross trained in NICU. Most of her career was spent in Gainesville but she also lived and worked three years in the San Diego area. She says, "Loved my job. I can only say that if my hospital was as caring for the nursing staff as they were for the patients, I would still be working part time. [I am} Missing seeing new babies."

BETSY MORETTA MILLER...

went to Columbus for her nursing career, and was an RN for 40 years. She retired from Affinity Medical Center in 2014. But she mostly sent information about her life outside of nursing: she has been married to Bill Miller for 45 years, and she has one daughter, Amy Snyder. Betsy and Bill have two grandchildren, Addison and Zachary. These days, she says,"I'm working on a bucket list!"

CARLEE CLAPPER ADAMS...

Carlee didn't start nursing school till her two oldest started school themselves, and she graduated from Aultman in 1977, starting immediately in the nursery of the OB Department. She also worked in OB at Doctor's Hospital where her most memorable infant was one born with seckle syndrome (bird- headed dwarfism). she says, " I could hold this infant in the palm of my hand, and when it left the hospital, it was so small it went home in a shoebox. Most of us nurses felt very protective of its privacy long before HIPPA!" 

After moving to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Carlee took a position at a community hospital in Bluffton an hour from home. After another baby and working 24 hour weekend shifts, she looked closer to home: OB again at Parkview Hospital, where she stayed for about six years working the 11-7 a.m. shift. Next she went into an office setting with a large OB/GYN practice and was there for 22 years. She finished her nursing career with a short-term Hospice experience.

 

She says, "These days my nursing consists of listening to tales of broken or happy hearts of my older grands ( 27-15) and bandages and kisses for boo boos of the youngest little miss who is 2. I also do paper arts, read voraciously, (I never thought about getting old till I realized I probably won't get through my 'want to read' list) and when Bill can convince me, I spend a little of winter on a cruise or just somewhere warm."

GAYLE MANGUS WINDELL..

first went to Timken Mercy School of Practical Nursing. The training was only a year, an she thought she was going to marry her high school sweetheart. After graduation from the program, she broke her engagement and went to work at Aultman because they paid her tuition to Kent State become an RN. Kathi Lewis and she went through both programs together and became the best of friends. (Kathi has asked not to be included in this series.)  They graduated in 1973.
  
Gail worked at Aultman for a total of 42 years. During that time she worked all shifts and every unit in the hospital.

She says now, "What I miss the most since my retirement is the fast learning pace one must maintain to be an RN, constantly learning something new. I loved my career and have never regretted the choice."




LU RAINSBURGER-BERTZ...

went to Mercy School of Nursing in Canton, Ohio upon graduating from high school. She received a diploma in nursing in 1971. She then went to the Army for four years at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. Lu received her BSN at Florida Southern in 1985. She worked in Los Angeles, California; Orlando, Florida; Rolla, Missouri; and Madison, WI. At most of those places, she was usually in the ICU. Before retiring eight years ago, she was an Allergy nurse and Treatment nurse. She says, "Loved it!! Never regretted my career."

LYNN KLOTZ MCCOY...

graduated from KSU in 1972 with a BSN. She then worked approximately 5-7 years in a couple of obstetricians' offices that practiced out of Doctors Hospital. These were not continuous years: they were  broken up by two pregnancies. Then in 1989 she went to work at the Stark County Health Department as an entry level public health nurse. She received her MS in Community Health in 2003. Lynn retired with 25 years of service as the Director of Nursing in 2013. She notes, "I know that does not add up to 25 but they offered a buy out for a number of long time employees and I took advantage of it."

MARY BRYDEN DALPIAZ...

went to nursing school at OSU after high school. She then got a job at Mercy Medical Center where she worked for 20 years. During this time, she worked on a on a medical-surgical unit. Mary also did patient education and staff development, then went to Stark State College where she taught nursing until she retired in 2014. She sent this message to those going to our 50th reunion: "Looking forward to seeing all of you in September!"

PEGGY COLE EVANS...

went to Nursing School at Massillon City Hospital School of Nursing September 1968 and graduated June 1971. She shared a lot! Here's just a part of her story:

After graduation, she moved to NJ where she took her state board exam and got her first job at Riverview Hospital in Red  Bank, NJ, gainomg experience in in orthopaedics, cardiology and general med/surg  nursing.  Put in charge on nights after two months she says, "Boy was that eye-opening, as well as a bit scary!" After one year, having gotten her eyes open, she went to work for an ophthalmologist for five years, then moved south in the fall of 1976 and has lived there ever since. One of her earliest positions in the region was as a Home Health Nurse in Columbia, SC, the most rewarding time of my career, in the days before cell phones. Such a challenge to locate some of the patients as most did not have telephones and many seemed to moved a lot! She notes, "You had to try and find people by landmarks. After my son was born in 1981 I moved to North Augusta, SC planning to be a stay at home mom. NOPE!" Instead, she decided to work two days a week, then after one year, she went back to full time at University Hospital in Augusta, GA from May 1983 until August 2015. After retirement, she continued to work part-time April 2018.

During her years at University she worked in various areas including Med Surg and Endoscopy/ Minor Surgery. She then took the exam for certification in Healthcare Quality and became a CPHQ (Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality), working for 28 years in Performance Improvement.

She says: "When I started out my career I could never have imagined that I would end up working on improvement teams and monitoring the quality of the care that was given as this was unheard of when I started out in 1971. The advent of CMS and the influence of insurance company guidelines was the stimulus for the growth in this area of healthcare. I will avoid the soap box and say that I am glad to now be retired! So, I have been an RN for 47 years!"

Two of our classmates that were nurses have since died, but we want to include them, too, among those who served

TOM HALE...

went to Central Ohio Technical College for nursing school, graduating in 1983, but he had an interesting career long before that.

He received his B.A. in 1972 from Case Western Reserve University, where he'd started in pre-med but switched to religion. He then obtained his M.Div. in 1975 from Colgate Rochester Crozer. Tom was an ordained Episcopal priest when he decided to go back to the medical field. After obtaining his nursing degree, he was a Flight RN with Grant Medical Center in Columbus from 1987 to 1992. He moved to TX in '95 where he continued his nursing career. Tom died in 2013, shortly before our 45th reunion.
(Many thanks to our classmate Dave Stockdale for providing the information on Tom's career.)

LINDA RYMAN

We are trying to find out information about Linda's nursing career. I knew her at Watson Grade School as a smiling, quiet schoolmate, who had to manage her childhood diabetes even back then and throughout our high school years. I imagine that experience may have led her to her career in health. She and I rode the same bus for 10 years, a ride of over an hours a day, so we had many long conversations, but I lost track of her when we graduated except for one long conversation we had at our fifth reunion. Chris Large Hawkins recalls Linda being a year ahead of Chris in classes at Aultman Nursing School. If anyone has any information about Linda or her nursing career, please contact me, and I will add it here.

CHRIS (LARGE) HAWKINS: Nurse Extraordinaire

 

First Contact

In my first phone conversation with Chris, she talked nonstop for nearly half an hour about her wonderful experiences in nursing, and  we made arrangements for me to visit her home in Barberton and hear more.

"Wow," I said to my husband when I got off the phone, "her voice is loud and clear and lovely. Surely good things have happened for her." Indeed they have, and Chris herself made most of them happen with her hard work, intelligence, courage, and that sweet smile that everyone remembers today, though it must have been a bittersweet smile somtimes.

Paul and Chris Large Hawkins
 

I arrived at her Victorian home with its purple front door, a tribute to the Barberton Magics. . The house originally belonged to the grandmother of her husband, Paul Hawkins, who was born and raised in town. The couple had a big home in Cuyahoga Falls which they sold recently to take over this family heirloom with its green tile fireplace and tiger wood pocket doors, the purple bedroom (another tribute to the Barberton Magics) where Chris injured her back in a fall while trying to finish painting its ceilings, and the white, airy curtains in several places in the house. The couple have been here a short time, but it is definitely homey, although they only spend their summers here every year, until September, when they head back to their condo in Jupiter, Florida. 

But if you know me, you know I am not so much into decorating as getting the story, and I knew Chris would have a great one. You will recall that in school, she barely spoke. Somewhere along the way, she earned a very powerful voice.

The Nurse




Chris, the Nurse
 

She began our conversation with her nursing career. "Why nursing?" I asked. She replied that she had wanted to be a nurse as long as she could remember, read all the Cherry Ames novels (as did I, without my ever consider nursing.) She had seen a lot of nurses from the time she was hospitalized at three months old, 12 months old and then again at 18 months old, and many times thereafter-- but she turned from the question of why to how..


She took a year off after we graduated in 1968, and then in 1969, she received a Morrow scholarship to Aultman's nursing program, which covered tuition, room, board, books-- anything she would need to get her RN. To be awarded this scholarship was quite a coup, even for someone who had graduated with a relatively high grade point average. ("I always got 'A's' on tests, and 'A's'  and 'B's'  in my classes" she noted, but would rather take an 'F' for any oral reports or class participation instead of talking in front of others.") 

Chris graduated with honors in 1973 with her RN and became Staff Nurse in Orthopedic/ Medical Surgery Nursing at Aultman. But by 1976, she was married and had a son. "The night shift with a small baby nearly killed me," she said, as did the very demanding weekly work schedule rotations, which she got no input into.

Chris with reams of documentation

So she was glad to get a job at Ravenna's Robinson Memorial Hospital (now a part of University Hospitals) that had straight shifts. She remained there for 38 years and became a dynamic force on the staff.

She went on to achieve her Bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science in Nursing Degree with a specialty in Nursing Administration. Her resume lists more than seven leadership positions at Robinson from Surgery and Critical Care Nursing, to Managing Telemetry and Medical Units to serving as Director of Medical Surgical Nursing, Director, Special Projects, Director of the Health Education Center, Magnet Program Director, Director of Nursing Practice, and Adjunct Faculty for nursing students, to name a few.

Chris fulfilled many other leadership roles and responsibilities in her position within the Nursing Administration Department during the last 13 years of her career at Robinson, culminating in her proudest accomplishment as Director, Nursing Practice, and the Magnet Program Director, guiding the hospital to achieve Magnet designation "the gold standard of nursing and hospital excellence," in 2006, before many of the larger hospitals had achieved the designation. That job took massive documentation, as you can see in the photo on the left of her sitting beside the stacks and stacks of paperwork she produced for the final award. The hospital also achieved redesignation as a Magnet Hospital for the second time in 2011 under Chris’ direction and leadership. 

She also loved staff celebrations, especially Halloween, which she and the staff always dressed for to cheer up the patients. Chris dressed up as Raggedy Ann, as a flapper, as The Cat in the Hat. This is woman who loves parties, celebrating, dressing up. She "retired" in 2006, after 30 years of service, only for Robinson Memorial to beg her to come back, which she did until 2014, when she finally, finally walked away into her real retirement. And what a life she has in retirement. But first, we needed to backtrack to Perry School days.

The School Girl

Chris finally brought up the topic I had not wanted to broach, the early difficult years that I vaguely recalled. She had been born with a cleft palate-- no palate, no uvula-- so her speech was impaired. Starting in first grade, during "play time," Chris was sent off for "Speech Therapy," which seemed particularly cruel to her, missing play time and having to sit through hours of mouth and throat torture. 

And before that, at age three months, she was hospitalized for several weeks for an operation that stitched her tongue to the side of her cheek to prevent her from choking on it until her anatomical structures grew larger enough to have multiple corrective reconstruction surgeries. Back then, hospitals did not believe that parents should visit, so she was totally cut off from her mom and dad. She has been told that tubes were put on her outstretched arms, a position she was forced to lie in all day and night. Although she cannot remember this period, she can imagine the kind of trauma that was for such a very small child.

Many of us remember that her speech was different in grade school, but it didn't seem a huge deal to us. Classmates that I asked about it this week either didn't even know or recall and the rest thought it didn't present problems in their understanding Chris.  I

The Famous Whipple Girl Scout Troop
(Thanks to Peggy Nelson for this photo)

didn't go to Whipple then, but Chris went to my church at the time when were little, and my mom's best friend was Chris's Aunt Ann, whose family also went to our church. Chris was active in the legendary Jo McDowell Girl Scout Troop in those days. Peggy Nelson, who did go to Whipple and was in Chris's Girl Scout Troop says, " I remember her positive attitude and smile and am pretty sure that made a difference." But I remember the bullies back then too, and I asked Chris about them. She didn't want to even go there but assured me, she took some terrible torment from some particularly cruel students. 

By high school, she had learned to remain nearly silent. As a result, many classmates were not even aware of her speech difference. When I told Dave Motts about this story, he said, "What? Chris? I don't remember that at all. I just remember her great smile." Over and over again, that's what everyone remembers: that smile. 

Class photo 1968

She did tell me about her worst experience at Perry, and it was not with a classmate but a teacher who monitored a Study Hall Chris was assigned to.  Approaching the teacher's desk to ask for the Lavatory Pass, Chris looked down at the seating chart and saw beneath her name, "Defective case." She walked out of the class and never went back, marched into a study hall, where she sat out that period for the rest of the year. No one came to get her; no one asked.


If that wasn't hurtful enough, she told me that she could not bear to give oral reports or speak up in class, and so oral reports and class participation, when graded, probably impacted her GPA. (Author's note:  Wherever I have taught since 1972, alternative assignments have been offered to students with special needs, and I am shocked to think that no teacher at the time ever offered Chris an alternative.) She notes that arriving in nursing school, she had a professor with a cleft palate, and, as with many of us, having a role model was enlightening and lightening. She was reborn into learning.

In addition to the difficulties at school, Chris was overburdened at home. As the only girl in the family, she was expected to do the mothering for her five younger brothers, as well as all the housecleaning and cooking. By junior high, she was forced to give up the wonderful Girl Scout troop to go straight home from school to help out at home with preparing family dinners and oversee the younger kids’ homework.When I asked if she had any friends she wanted to remember from those days, she recalled  her neighbor and best friend Meg Gorgon and also Peggy Forrest, who lived nearby, and later, in high school and Betsy Moretta, whom I interviewed and who remembers Chris with fondness. 

The Difference

Not until she was 30 did Chris actually get the operation that transformed her cleft palate and immensely improved her speech. A new doctor from Beirut, Lebanon at the hospital said he could "fix" it and help her to talk better. Her first husband and her first doctor were totally opposed, predicting dire consequences. Chris, with great determination, went on with it, ignoring the first doctor and divorcing the husband. The operation has given her a voice that is crystal clear.  And that smile? As sweet as ever, but wider and even more confident. 

Life Today: Playing, Partying, Painting and Decorating

When I asked Chris what the best part of her life is now, what she wants her classmates to know about her, she said: "Three things:  my husband, Paul, my son, and my life in Florida."

Today, her life is filled with her friends in Jupiter, Florida, where she and her husband spend about seven months out of the year, and her friends in Ohio where she spends the other five months. She is busy with yoga, water aerobics, card clubs, book club, and crafts (painting and stenciling). Oh, and partying. She brings up the topic of partying so often she sounds like my college freshmen, and she brings out the photos to prove it: pictures Chris, Paul and their friends at parties that go on and on down there in paradise.

Her son and his wife, who are both a postal workers, got a transfer to Florida so they could be near to Chris, which really thrilled her. She worked hard to raise him, most of the time on her own, while working full time in a demanding job, and having him nearby in her golden years is her glory.
 
And then there is Paul, to whom she has been married now for 32 years, clearly the love of her life. He was at the house while I was there, and it is clear to see how very dear Chris is to him, as he is to her. An accountant who is now retired too, Paul has also been a lifelong musician, a trombonist, going back to his days in the Barberton marching band up to his current gig in the Palm Beach Gardens Concert Band. Chris is there at every concernt, along with more than 40 of their friend from Jupiter. .

Chris hasn't been to a reunion before because the class lost track of her. For our 50th reunion, determined to track down anyone we could, Dave Motts, Marsha Brown Rennecker, and I have been like bloodhounds. We haven't located everyone, but we have gone to great ends to find as many as we could. Dave found one of Chris's brothers on the golf course and asked him for her contact information. We are thrilled she and Paul are coming. Please welcome her back. 

FINAL NOTE: I was so inspired by Chris's tales of nursing that I decided to look up all our classmates who went into nursing, and a brief account of their careers is coming up next week! Stay tuned!

INTRO to My 2018 PHS Class of '68 Profiles

A recent New York Times book reviewer wrote a description of characters in a novel that I think describes my schoolmates:  “The characters exhibit the range of personalities that you’d expect from a random sampling of Middle Americans: nice people, abrasive people, the churchy, the alcoholic, the educated, the not. You’d probably know which of them you’d prefer to sit with at a high school reunion.” Yep. Tru dat.

Coming home to live in Canton after 40 years of not living in Canton, I have enjoyed catching up with some of my PHS characters—I mean classmates. Five years ago, I set up this blog to tell the stories of some of them in preparation for our 45th reunion. I’m back at it again for the 50th. Below, you will find profiles on ROSEMARY HAYNE, KATHRYN CULBERTSON, JERRY SIMLER, and CHRIS LARGE HAWKINS. I also have a round-up of 10 classmates who became nurses.

I need to make clear that this is not an official class blog. No one is responsible for this but me. I choose people to profile not because they were or are the most or least popular or successful but because I think they have an interesting story to tell. Maybe you’ve known someone’s story all along. I didn’t, and as a writer, I like to learn from what I write. So I sought these people out to learn something.

In general, one of the things I’ve learned from writing this blog is that many classmates thought they didn’t have many friends in high school. Bonnie Andrews Kolberg, with whom I became friends only 40-some years after graduation, used to say that to me all the time. And yet she had one true very good friend from grade school on throughout her whole life, and she let me tell that story. That friendship with Kathy sustained the two of them through dating, marriage, babies, and grandbabies, as Bonnie acquired more and more friends, including, I'd like to think, me. Her life ended way too soon and sadly for her family and her very many friends a few years ago. We miss her. But we have her story. Similarly, another classmate once told me she didn’t have many friends from high school, but when she came to a PHS ’68 girl get-together, and she walked into the room, five women shouted her name across the room, and ran over to hug her.

It’s not the number of friends you have, but the number of friends you can count on.

Two of the people I have interviewed this time—Kathy Garnett Culbertson and Rosemary Hayne-- began by telling me they didn’t have very many friends in high school. And yet, both remember others and are remembered fondly by others I have spoken to.

This time around, all of the people I interviewed are people I knew in grade school, long before high school, and with whom I had very little contact in the halls of Perry High. And yet, I have strong, clear memories of all of them as children, and meeting up with them again, all these years later, I saw them both as the wonderful children they started out as, the interesting high school characters they were, and the fabulous adults that they have become. I can’t say that I understand their lives, so much has gone missing in our connection in the past 50 years. But as the reviewer I began with noted, “Friends, especially childhood friends, don’t need to fully understand one another in order to accept one another.”

I’d add, they don’t need to understand each other in order to show up at a 50th reunion. Think about it: Weekend of September 15th. (After note: I hope to profile three to four more people before our reunion in September. If you have any suggestions, email me at my google or website address or message me on Facebook. Please don’t put post it to everyone. I am not looking so much for success stories as STORIES, accounts of interesting things that have befallen us.)

ROSEMARY HAYNE: Hometown Artist Makes Art and Good

Rosemary today

I was aware of Rosemary Hayne from the time we both were sent to Watson Elementary School in third grade by the Perry Schools administrators who decided such things, but I think we were never in a class together. I know we weren’t in third, fourth, or sixth grade, because I have the class photos for those. Maybe the fifth. Never at Edison, and I am pretty sure, never at Perry. But I always had such a strong memory of her smiling, not saying much, just smiling, and of her being one of the art students who hung out in Mrs. Sheehan’s room with Sue Scourfield, Kathi Lewis, Peg Forrest, Deb Dickinson, Don McArthur, Bill Clauss, Pam Druesedow, Don Potter, Dave Kracker, Joan Kate, and Marilyn Moore.

Since returning home to live in Canton in my retirement after 40-some years away, I've looked up some PHS classmates, and I asked Rosemary to meet me for coffee at Carpe Diem in downtown Canton to learn where she had been the past 40-some years.



I was amazed to find that all along Rosemary Hayne had been the art teacher at Edison Middle

Rosemary, yearbook photo

School!!! I wasn’t surprised to learn that she had been an art teacher, not at all. But for the Perry Schools? I couldn’t get a job in the Perry Schools to save myself (literally), even when they had one job open in two fields, both of which I had degrees in. That is another story. Rosemary’s story is this one:


Rosemary was the quiet only child of an older couple, so when she went off to college, they didn’t want her to get too very far, and she went to Ashland College. After three years at Ashland, she became discouraged at what she perceived as indifference or apathy regarding the event that led up to the massacre at Kent State on May 4th. She was also disappointed in Ashland's art curriculum, so she transferred to Kent State and graduated with a Fine Arts degree in December 1972.


A few years following graduation she took a job teaching junior high school art in Barberton where she had previously done her student teaching. The transition to  an ultra conservative-factory town  was quite a culture shock after her hippie days at Kent in the early 70’s.

While she felt she was doing a good job there, when she heard there was a job at Edison, she went for it and was hired. It was a new and better experience. At Barberton, she felt that neither the school nor the parents appreciated the teaching of art very much. She says, “Over and over, parents said to me, ‘Why does my child have to take art?’”


“And not at Edison?” I asked.


“Well sometimes the students would say, 'Why do I have to take art?' but I didn't get it nearly so often as at Barberton, and it was from the kids” she replies. “I had good support from the school and the parents, who seemed to like what their kids were doing.”

Acrylic by Rosemary Hayne

And there she stayed in the Perry Local Schools for many years, teaching at Pfieffer when it first opened. While she was teaching art, she worked in a lot of  art media, taking classes such as photography, metals, and more  at Akron U and a variety of other schools for fun.


She also worked in colored pencils. and producing her own art. She continued making art, primarily painting in acrylics both alone and with other local artists, participating in many art shows in downtown Canton. And she cultivated her love of having dogs, rescuing dogs, helping dogs be rescued, and supporting local animal organizations.

Then, like many of us, she got the opportunity to retire, which she did. In retirement,  she has taken painting classes at Malone. ("Did you know you can take classes for free at universities if you are over 60 ?!!!!!" she emailed me, a tip for all of you who are looking to stay mentally active.) She also belongs to a colored pencil art group that meets every Friday for drawing and social fun.




Untitled by Rosemary Hayne

She has exhibited a lot locally: in the Stark County Artists Show, the May Show and at the Little Art Gallery in North Canton, and for several years, she  had a gallery space in downtown Canton at the then 2nd April Galerie.  


"Dottie" by Rosemary Hayne 



"Old Blue" by Rosemary Hayne

Today, she says, "Dogs are an important part of my life. I have three: Archie, who is an agility dog and his litter mate, Sammie, whose life is focused on eating, sleeping and contemplating life. The newest member of the canine family is Annie who will hopefully follow in Archie's footsteps as an agility dog."  Like several of our classmates (hey, Alana Cowal Whittier! hey, Sue Masalko Shaffer! Anyone else out there? ). Rosemary is active in dog rescue efforts, primarily with the Stark County Dog Pound, where she has worked in fundraising  for the vet room, walking dogs, finding abandoned dogs well matched homes, and serving on the Friends of Stark Pound  Board.


Since our first coffee meetup, Rosemary and I have gotten together for an art "fix." We viewed the "Elijah Pierce" exhibit at the Canton Museum of Art, saw some movies and heard some organ music at the Palace Theater, and ate out at Basil Asian. If you like art or classic films or Thai food, let us know, and you can join us. It would help if you are a dog person.

All of the artwork is copyrighted by Rosemary Hayne. Contact her on Facebook if you'd like to purchase any or see any of her other work.

Kathryn (Garnett) Culbertson R: "Happy, Independent, Blessed, & Thankful"

At our 45^th class reunion, Kathryn Culbertson approached me and said, “My life would be a great book, if I ever get time to write it. I want to tell you about it sometime.” She briefly mentioned that her home life was terrible during our school years, that one of our teachers hid her during several weeks of school. and that another teacher urged her to leave home after graduation. 

We both managed to put off talking about it again until now, five years later, heading into our 50^th reunion. I sent her my usual questionnaire, and she replied with answers about her current life as a realtor, her joy in her children and grandchildren. When I asked her for her best or worst high school memory, she said, “School was not an easy time for me.  I never felt good enough, had no self-confidence, was very shy and I thus had very few friends.”

She left the space blank where I asked if there was anything she wanted to add, and I wasn’t going to pry. But recently, she decided she did want to add more because she has ended up “very happy, independent, blessed and thankful. I climbed up from poverty and physical and mental abuse to have a very happy filled life. I am blessed to have the most loving and amazing children. What more could I want or need? And grandchildren!”

I decided to share some of her story here because it is such a testimony to her strength and resilience. (The rest we’ll save for our book, right, Kathryn?) In addition, I want to recognize the friends that Kathryn did have at Perry. I have always thought it more important to have a few good friends than to have many acquaintances, and Kathryn surely had a few friends who were great, both fellow students and teachers.

Her real story began at age seven when she was raped by a relative and told never to tell. As we now know, that trauma effects one’s life so very deeply. And other mental and physical abuse went on in her home. She gratefully remembers Faith Edgein Plumb, who brought her lunch each day, as Faith’s mom packed the equivalent of two lunches, enough bor for each of them, and who has stayed a friend to today.  Faith confirms the story, saying, "My mom had a difficult childhood situation herself and recognized some of Kathy's need." Kahryn
also movingly recalls the friendship of Jody Dye, who transferred to and graduated from Washington High. (Jody now lives in Key West, and she is still singing professionally, everyone!)

But the big support came our junior year when a teacher [Mrs. McNutt] discovered Kathryn 

1968 yearbook photo

covered in hives, and questioning her, realized that her student had big trouble at home. Together with another teacher and an administrator, they helped her to get away from home for awhile and at graduation, Mrs. Swearingen told her to get out now that she could.

Years of hard work, medication, and therapy helped, but it was a slow process, one that took years. She notes, “Once I had children, I fought every day to get healthy and strong. And I did.”

Along the way, she went to college, where she carried a 3.9 average until she was divorced and deserted, with three children to support. She quit school and went into car sales at a Buick dealership in Toledo. She laughs, when she says, “Oh by the way, I knew nothing about cars, just faked it until I studied enough that I could talk about the features and then I learned to Sell!”

Finally, her big career move came when she obtained her Ohio license in 1985, and her Florida license in 1991. Living on the west coast of Florida for nineteen years, she specialized in “new construction and enjoyed the entire process from picking out a homesite until the finished home.” And she hopes to return to Florida in retirement. For now, which is to say the past eight years, she has lived in Miamisburg, Ohio, where she continues as a realtor who is “passionate about real estate and the flexibility it provides…[and passionate about] working with all my clients and families,” several of whom have become close friends.

Kathryn is also very passionate about her children and grandchildren, who are “fun and of course intelligent, kind and loving.” She went on about them at length, saying much more about them than she did about herself, and I am going to let her tell you about them: “My six grandchildren are the very best part of me… My oldest granddaughter is 19 and is studying to become a nurse at St. Joe’s College in Cincinnati. She has the drive and heart and compassion to become a great nurse. Next is my step-granddaughter Alexis, who is graduating from high school and then moving on to attend college this fall.  She along with my grandson, Cristian, 14 and Rauiri, 5, live in McLean, Virginia with my daughter Jennifer and her husband Roger. My youngest son, Peter lives here in Miamisburg and has two boys, Joshua 13 and Liam three and a half.  Joshua has Autism but very high functioning. I have been enjoying teaching him how to bake and cook one night a week.”

All this, and partner too: “I am also blessed to have my best friend and finance, Freddie. We have been together for fourteen years and enjoy traveling and just spending time together.”

**********

This was not an easy story for either of us to tell, but we decided to tell it--not to be sensationalist or to give you all something to gossip about. For my part,  I wanted to say that in every school and neighborhood, there are adults and children in duress, and that any small act, from a friend bringing an extra sandwich to a teacher stepping in to provide shelter can be life-saving. And Kathryn wanted us to know how possible and how important it is to work, no matter where one starts from, toward a happy, fulfilled life, which she is thrilled to have. 

When I asked if she had attended any reunions, and whether she would be attending the next, she noted, “Freddie and I attended the 45^th reunion together and had a great time visiting with my fellow Perry High School graduates. We’ll be back. We enjoyed the last one and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again. Going to a high school reunion at our age is sort of like coming full circle.”

Only now, for this classmate, the circle is wider and brighter than ever before. We look forward to seeing her, too.