Cheryl Lee Evans Boland

We have three children, Amy is 49, Jim Jr. is 48, and Kathleen is 47. They are all teachers. Our son teaches 6th and 7th grades at Scott Middle School in Hammond.Our youngest daughter teaches 1st. grade in Crown Point, Our oldest daughter taught elementary school in Hammond and in Merrillville. She had four children and decided to be a stay at home Mom. We now have eight grandchildren. Their ages range from 27 to our 9 year old twin granddaughters. We also now have an 8 month old great grandson. As you can tell, I am very proud of our family. Jim went on the doctoral program in 1969. We moved our family down to married housing at Ball State University. Those three years were lean years, but filled with nothing but precious memories. We still talk today about the fun we had riding our bikes through the campus to go get a big pretzel and a cherry coke at the Student Union. We saved bread crumbs and walked to the little pond on campus and fed the ducks. I could go on, but I won't bore you anymore. Jim graduated with his Doctorate in Psychology. He was hired by Indiana University in Gary, and taught there for 34 years. He retired 6 years aqo and is my caregiver. I was diagnosed in 1981 when I was 36 years old with Multiple Sclerosis. Life has changed a lot for Jim and I. I have been in a wheelchair for the past 10 years. Despite having had M.S. for 31 years, I continue to remain positive. I feel very blessed having Jim, our children, and grandchildren in my life. Our son Jim and his family recently moved in with us. It was selfless of them and will provide substantial peace of mind for Jim and I. We live on 2 acres of beautiful wooded property; and have deer, ducks, geese, raccoons, we even had a coyote and a fox come and eat some of the corn that Jim puts out every day for the animals. We were lucky to see a doe have her fawn in our front yard. This is a beautiful place to be confined to, on occasion. We are lucky that our two daughters live within 10 minutes of us. They also help us out by cooking meals, shopping for us, and do many other miscellaneous things. We are a very close family. We call our family " A Circle of Strength".

I married Jim Boland, my high school sweetheart. I was only 15 years old when we began dating in my sophomore year, Jim was 17 and a senior. We got married after I graduated. We will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary in August. Jim is the love of my life. I feel very grateful that we met at MHS. Gus Chance set us up and we will be eternally grateful. He was a mutual friend who will be missed. There are a lot of good friends from MHS who are no longer with us. Cheryl Bothwell and I were friends since grade school. She was one of the bridesmaids in my wedding party.
One of my lasting memories was of Mr. Moorehead teasing me when I was a hall monitor. I would be counting words in a paper that was due that required only 200 words. He would start counting 97, 100,105, etc. just to make me have to start counting all over again. He would come out of his room to go to the washroom and start counting, and would continue counting after he came out of the washroom. I had a lot of lasting memories at MHS. Diane Kominiak and I were very close friends. We would sometimes go to the patio after school to get their great french fries and cherry cokes. The age that we grew up in can't be duplicated. When we were kids we played outside from morning until the street lights came on. We actually had a lot of fun without the high tech games and other things that the kids of today have. I wouldn't trade my childhood or my high school experience for anything.