From high school graduation I attended the summer session at McCook Jr. College, picking up 14 grueling Biology and English credits to prepare me to attend the University of Nebraska in Lincoln that fall. And who can forget the first year of college away from home! Lots of playing and not much studying I''m afraid.

The following summer I joined a group of McCookites for another summer session, this time at the University of Warwick in England. The Troxel Briggade struck out to put our mark on England. The following school year I met my future husband, Jim, on a blind date on Friday the 13th which became our lucky date. We were married a year and a half later. Our son was born a year later, and after graduation we moved to Kansas City to start Jim's CPA career.

Our beautiful blonde daughter was born. We lived in Overland Park for 9 years while Jim worked for a national CPA firm. In 1978 Henry Block (H&R Block)who was Jim's client, asked him to become CFO of his newly acquired company in Ft. Lauderdale. I began working as a writer for a home builder and we all became enthralled with little league baseball and soccer.

Unfortunately, my allergies grew exponentially and drove us to leave Jim's dream job. We came to Denver in '82 and Jim took over the company's local office, but he soon decided to opened his own practice. I decided to stretch my wings, became a mortgage broker and opened a new office for Van Schaack, a large local real estate company at the time. After several corporate restructurings I decided to leave the real estate world and took a job marketing for a commercial construction company. I stayed with the company for 14 years as their director of marketing. It was exciting to grow the company from a $30 million per year business to a $350 million corporation but the pace and intensity took its tole. Additionally both of my parents became ill and passed away. Subsequently, I tried finding my birth-family and surprisingly was led to my 3 older brothers and a host of aunts, uncles and cousins. They had no idea I existed. We had just become acquainted and were developing close relationships when my birth-mother's older sister and my middle brother died a day apart.

The following year Jim became sick and died 9 months later. Luckily, we decided to continue our plans to move to our dream home on 5 acres, and he was able to spend his last days in a God-sculpted setting that helped him prepare for his move into his next world. The Sedalia house was also very healing for me and I stayed there for 2 more years.

After leaving the construction company I worked for a developer but eventually went back to work in mortgage lending and real estate. I met my second love and we spent 7 years together before a sudden heart attach took him.

My life has been very blessed and I have been so very fortunate in many ways. Writing has led me toward creating some non-fiction work that was published. Current projects may never make it outside my ladtop. Writing is a fascinating addiction and one that I can now call an intriguing hobby. My other addiction is playing Bridge. Our little group is made up of some high-brow, accomplished masters (I'm not one of them) who are difficult to keep up with but I'm continually learning. It keeps the mind challenged. Golf has been sidelined this year but I'll get back to it this fall.

Now it's just me and my Bichon, Kookie, who has created quite a name for himself during his lively 13 years. We are in Colorado as are my children and 3 grandchildren and honestly, I'd follow them anywhere. I love it here but have many wonderful memories from having grown up in McCook during a time that was magical with a freedom and sense of security that probably will never be experienced again. Combine that with people who not only have altered our personal histories but have impacted our country's values and character. What an intriguing run it's been.