After high school graduation I decided to go far, far away from home, so headed to Fort Worth and became a TCU Horned Frog. It was a wonderful four years during which I had a double major in psychology and speech pathology.
After graduation I taught six weeks of summer school in the HISD and then headed for Syracuse University. My father had moved our family to Houston in 1952 from Canada and I always thought he had done us an injustice, leaving those beautiful white, cold winters. Did I learn quickly what a smart man he had been! It was a long year and a half spent trying to keep warm. The best thing about it was that I did meet my husband, Jim. He was also pursuing a Master’s.
When Jim returned to his home of Cleveland, Ohio, I followed and taught at a residential school for emotionally disturbed children. We were married in 1968, both teaching and living the high life! (those of you who are teachers, know I say this in jest) Then Jim decided he really wanted to be a doctor. So we moved to Philadelphia, where he attended medical school and I taught children with severe language delays for three years. While Jim was a fourth year student, our daughter Anne Katherine was born. I was thrilled to become a stay at home mom.
We moved to Columbus, Ohio for Jim’s internship and at that point decided to look at Texas for permanent home. Fate took us to Grand Prairie where in 1977 our second daughter Amy Elizabeth was born.
I was office manager of Jim’s practice for several years before getting the opportunity to go back to teaching. Arlington ISD hired me as a part time speech pathologist and I have been there for eight years.
Our daughters both followed in my footsteps and went to TCUĐ, but in their Dad‘s medical interests. Anne is a psychiatric nurse practitioner in Houston and last year was married to Jason Phillips, who is finishing a residency in internal medicine with the Baylor System. Amy is working on her Masters in nursing at the University of Texas at Arlington and has a job at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.
We moved from Grand Prairie to Arlington about three years ago and our current project is getting my Dad, who is 86 years old, settled into the house next door to us. It will be great to have him closer as he has been living in Marble Falls and Bryan since leaving Houston.
It has been so wonderful to hear all the life adventures of our fellow graduates. I luckily still have my yearbook, so love looking up your photos to remember faces to go with the biographies.
Thanks to Rob and Betty and the rest of the reunion committee for the work in getting us together.
Pat
4-21-02