Kathleen Richards

In February of 2010 I was diagnosed with cancer. A lump was found early, it was immediately removed, and I was hospitalized to begin my 6 week regimen of chemotherapy and radiation.

The doctor told me that I could be cured, but it was going to be a very tough regimen. I was strong and told him to "bring it on." Cancer was not going to get the best of me.

I was never so sick in my life. I was hospitalized week 1 and week 5 where I underwent 24 by 7 chemotherapy. I had radiation every day for 6 weeks. At the end of the 5th week, my blood counts were down as expected. But that in combination with 2nd degree radiation burns caused the most horrible infection which hospitalized me for an additional 8 days. I slept most of the 8 days with the antibiotics and narcotics.

I was scarred internally from the radiation burns, lost all my hair, lost 20 pounds, but I lived. And I am more ALIVE now than I have ever been in my life!

In June I went to Hawaii with my son-in-law's family, my daughter, and my grandchildren. In July I went to Space Camp with my two granddaughters. In August I went to Cedar Point with my entire family. In November I went to Italy with a friend. It wasn't easy, and I had problems, but I was not going to let cancer control my life.

The prognosis is great. The CT scans are all clear and I am on the mend, still healing from the radiation burns. What life dishes out is sometimes not fun. I guess in the end, something is going to get all of us, whether we like it or not. I added my "after cancer" photos below.

In January 2011 I did a synchronized swimming solo. The You Tube link is below.

Now . . . to answer the question . . . "other places you have lived:"

I have always lived in northeast Ohio. After graduating from Kent State University, I moved to Cuyahoga Falls, OH where I taught high school chemistry and biology. I later moved to Wadsworth, OH as it was half way between Cuyahoga Falls and Wooster where my husband was working. We got divorced, and I never moved again, as I did not want to disrupt my daughter.

I always thought I would move to the "big city" once my daughter graduated from high school. But I didn't. Now that I am retired, my quiet life in a "sleepy town" is nice.

I miss the "big city" life at times, but travel to see friends and family regularly in New York, Boston, Sacramento and am always driving north towards Cleveland. I get to Twinsburg very often where my daughter and her family lives. I am in Cleveland Hts often with my old high school girl friends, and I am always at the Cleveland Museum of Art!

When I was a majorette in the CHHS Marching Band, I wore a three piece uniform that consisted of a jacket, shorts and a skirt that had an open flap. During a game the zipper in the shorts broke, so I held the shorts together with safety pins. While I was twirling my baton during the half-time show, my baton got caught in the flap of my skirt. My skirt quickly became unattached and I flung it across the football field. It seemed like I threw it a mile away. I ran quickly to get my skirt and put it back on, thinking everyone had seen my underwear under the safety pins in the shorts. I'll never forget it!

What I loved the most about high school was being a Swim Cadet. I loved learning how to do the synchronized swimming stunts and performing in the Swim Cadet Pageant. It made me feel like a mermaid! Swimming was always and is still important to me. Today I am on an Adult Synchronized Swimming team, "In Sync," with Trudy Hansen at LifeCenter Plus in Hudson, OH. I ran into Miss Fritz, our club advisor, a few months ago when I was practicing my stunts in the pool. That was so neat. Trudy and I have so much fun, and I feel like I am a teenager again when we prepare for our little performances.

Mrs. Bernard, our chemistry teacher, was my role model. I always wanted to be like her when I grew up. That was probably why I majored in chemistry at Kent State University and became a chemistry and biology teacher for eight years. I left teaching and joined IBM as a salesperson for the remainder of my career.

I would have taken French or Spanish. I always liked science, and never liked the languages, including English! I never thought I "would need a language." Little did I know that the world would become so global.

I think I didn't like languages because reading did not come easy to me. During my formative years in my Catholic Irish family of nine children, we lived in government subsidized housing in Euclid, OH. There was no place to read or study and we were so cramped together. And I certainly did not get help from my parents or my siblings. There were just too many kids. We moved to Cleveland Heights when I was 11 years old and I went to Roxboro, but the damage had been done.

My grand children are in the Kumon reading and math classes now and I have been amazed how fast they learn. I met with the owner of the local Kumon franchise and asked her if she had Kumon reading for adults. I think she thought I was crazy. But anyway, she said she would work with me, and was delighted to have me as her only adult, and a senior citizen at that! It has been amazing! I cannot tell you what it has done for me. It has helped me "undo" all the bad habits I acquired in that little, tiny house we lived in. It is the best thing I ever did for myself. I figure I will live at least another 20 years, if not more, and I want to enjoy reading.