Comments:
I spent the summer after graduation as a nanny in France-what a great experience I also travelled to Holland and Ireland at that time to find my roots. Upon returning I began my schooling. I attended a variety of local community colleges over the years. Initially I wanted to become an interior designer, then I was into photography. Eventually I settled on nursing.While going to school I worked in the restaurant business. I've worked at Domani, McCormick's Fish House, and The Wild Ginger to name several. I met my future husband Geoff when we both worked at The Shaft Restaurant in Burien in 1981. It was love at first sight! We were married in July '84 and are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. Geoff has an almost 30 year old son and together we have a 19 year old daughter. I received my Associates Degree in Nursing from Bellevue Community College in 1996. I had started working at Virginia Mason Medical Center in '95 as a nursing assistant to get my foot in the door. When I became an RN I began my career working med-surg with neurology and nephrology patients. Hard work, but quite rewarding.During that time period I returned to school and acheived a Bachelor's in Nursing from the UW Bothell campus. I have also worked in the preanesthesia department, and home-health care. Currently I am working at the Federal Way Virginia Mason Clinic as a procedure nurse in GI-Endoscopy. As we all approach the big 50, I expect I'll be seeing some of you at work. Not to worry, it will be kept strictly confidential. It's hard to believe I'm coming up on my 15th anniversary with VM...Outside of work my interests have been evolving...there was the grow up and figure out who I want to be phase which lasted a little too long. We became homeowners in 1986. So that brought on a time of fixing-up, decorating, gardening...all things to bring a 1931 house up to date. We sold that house in '93 and bought a big new house. There was no fixing up to do, but plenty of gardening, as the huge backyard was completely unlandscaped except for two 80 year old cedars. From '89 onward I was also engrossed in being a working mom. Somehow, with wacky schedules we were able to avoid daycare, which was important to us. For the past six or so years I have been very into hiking and that is now evolving into mountain climbing. Nearly two years ago I began training to summit Rainier and discovered I have a bone marrow diease called Myelodysplasia. Unfortuneately the cure is a stem cell transplant and they were unable to find me a perfect match. So I have been getting excellent care and chemo at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Because of that I am still able to hike aggressively. They tell me that eventually the chemo will stop working and that I will then need a transplant. But for now life is good and I try to make every day count. Right now I am training again to summit Rainier on June 24. Miracles can happen, RIGHT?
