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Recently it has been hard to tell my story for me which is weird because I am an open book. I think it is something about at our age now, we are doing a lot of looking back and evaluating. My story has a lot of what i would like to have done differently but at the end of the day, I have been a blessed individual.
My Mothers family is from the Dora community. My Great Grandpa: US Fraze was a school teacher and farmer. Mom went to school in Dora and in 1955, she married a runaway from Georgia. Together, they had 4 children.
My parents divorced when I was 6 and I would not see my dad again until I was already out of High School. I did not even know if he was alive. My mom remarried and we grew up on a farm outside of Portales. There was a lot of work but we all developed a sense of responsibility and had an appreciation for our world.
The Army was never hard for me and I was excited to get to see so many new places and meet so many people from so many different backgrounds. That excitement is still with me today and I travel as much as I can.
The Army sent me back to New Mexico where I was an Army Recruiter from 1979 to 1984.
In 1984, I married a guy who had come to New Mexico to get his Masters degree in Anthropology at ENMU. He thought I did not need to be in the Army so I transferred to the Reserves, went to nursing school, worked at Plains Regional Medical Center and had 3 children. The great part of that is that I did not get completely out of the Army and those three children would be the best part of my life. It was nice to be closer to my home.
Over the next 20 years, I got a commission and became an officer in 1991, divorced in 1997, raised my children, developed a rocky relationship with my father, lost my grandma and my step dad and became very involved with maternal child health in Curry county. I was fortunate to have several part time jobs along with my work at PRMC where I was able to impact the health and well being of young families. Much of the work was volunteer and all related to the cause. In many ways, I consider these my Camelot years.
As my children reached those really expensive years and I needed to make more money, I moved into a different arena. I developed and taught a CNA program for ENMU, completed my BSN, worked for the VA, opened Interim Health care in Clovis in 2004, served as the DON for a long term care facility for a year and opened Hospice of the Sandia's in Clovis in 2007.
My 50th birthday year, kids grown and settled, I took vacation, went to Europe for 2 weeks with my dad. Now that he was older and feeling his mortality, he wanted to have me around as his nurse. I suppose it was good we took this time because I would loose him in the next few years. His death, however opened some doors to meeting my Mitchell relatives in Georgia. I found a sister I did not know I had and much of my travel involves getting to know all of them.
I sold my home in Clovis, lived and worked in Albuquerque to be near my daughter for a couple of years, moved to San Antonio Texas continuing my hospice work for a couple of years and ultimately came back to Albuquerque because, well, you can take the girl out of New Mexico but you cant take the New Mexico out of the girl. Not to mention, my daughter married and I have a granddaughter: Hannah born in 2013. My mom lived long enough to meet Hannah but we tragically lost Mom in August of 2014. That has rocked my world and I admit to still being in recovery. Settling the family estate, takes me back to Portales from time to time.
My work with Hospice of the Sandia's is good. Sarah and Paul, expect another baby in April of 2016. My boys are amazing and I am enjoying watching all of them develop their lives. I have an incredible circle of friends and I am establishing a real sense of community in Albuquerque. My sister retired from the Army and bought a house not far from me. Michael is here going to UNM and I get to see David often as he and Jenna pursue their work.
Thank you to all of the people who worked so hard to bring us together for our reunion. The people I grew up with are a huge part of my life and I love you all!!
