Stephany Platzer Crosby’s Bio

I went back to school in 1997! I know it was 1997 because my husband Jack set up my e-mail account, stephany97@aol.com. That was great—you can share so much with classmates and professors via the ’net! And how utterly amazing it is to do papers on the computer! Corrections, insertions of new thoughts, FOOTNOTES—woooeee!! Fantastic!

Sure wasn’t like doing papers that first time around! I graduated from Louisiana State University, with a degree in Latin, thinking I’d go on to graduate school somewhere—then I started to get that bricked-in feeling. There are people who make dead languages amazingly lively and fun—but I just wasn’t there. I went to work in my Dad’s office, then as a receptionist at Baylor Medical School. Jack and I met at a superbowl party, got married, and went to live in Siracusa, Sicily for several months while he installed a new computer system in a refinery in Catania. (It was the punch card days. I think we still have some of them.) My Latin helped A LOT in picking up some Italian. We came back to Houson, and I worked as a “para-professional” at Rice U. Library. That was fun! There’s a huge back room behind the circulation desk, where all the new books are ordered, received, and prepared to go on the shelves. (At least—that’s how we did it in the old days!) There are scads of interesting people working away back there!

We moved to Atlanta for another computer project for a year. Then back to Houston. We bought an old (50 years old!) house near Rice, and really enjoyed fixing it up. I went back to the library-- this time, the Art Library, funded by the DeMenil family. I did some work on their rare books—which made my Latin handy. Who knew? My Italian helped with ordering art books. The Menil Foundation offered me a job with the curatorial staff, at Mrs. DeMenil’s house, in 1976. About 2 weeks after I started there, I found out I was expecting our first son, Jason. It was a very exciting 9 months! Two years later, our younger son Jeff was born. I did occasional things for the Menil while I stayed home with the boys.

Jack got a job offer in Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. We moved up here with the boys in 1982. (Golly it’s a relief to know that you’re not gasping at how long ago all of this was!) Jack traveled heavily, so I stayed home with our little guys. I sure missed Houston! We went home Christmas of 1982. We savored our time with my parents, our friends, our old neighborhood. We saw people mowing grass at Christmas time! When we came back to Virginia, the contrast of dead grass, patches of leftover snow, bare trees and freezing cold hit me hard. One day after grocery shopping, I was putting things away (and crying), and I took an acorn squash and dashed it against the floor! We were finding seeds from that thing for months! I needed that. I got involved in volunteer things—Cubs, school, and especially, my nearby Presbyterian church. It all got better. We planned our summer visits to Houston around our boys’ and my brother’s kids’ camping schedules—so we were usually there in August! Talk about a yearly reality bite!

Our first son, Jason, went to Texas A & M. (“It just feels like I belong there, Mom.”) He was on the TAMU Power Lifting team. After graduation, he wasn’t ready to settle down, so he took a job as bodyguard to a chicken magnate in Pune, India. He’ll be back in June. Jeff went to University of Vermont. He loves snow sports—and I’m sure I’m sure it didn’t hurt that UVM makes every list of party schools. Jeff had the impulse to get in his language requirement with Chinese. I bit my tongue so hard! But he absolutely loved it. He went on UVM’s study-abroad program in Kunming, in western China, and loved it even more. After graduation, he returned to Kunming, to study more Chinese. He left on September 18. That was his second try. He was all ready for take off from Dulles Airport to Chicago at 9:15 a.m. on September 11. It was hours before we knew he was off the flight.

Oh, yes, I went back to school! I started the same year Jeff went to Vermont, so he used to send me study tips by e-mail! I went to Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. It was an incredibly fabulous four years! Some days, I thought the main reason God had brought me there was to encourage my classmates who were feeling “too old” at age 45. “Hey baby, you think you’re old?” I had a great internship experience with a woman pastor as my mentor. She taught me so much! When she retired, that church hired me to tide them over for the summer. Jeff and I both graduated last May. It’s a blessed thing, to exchange graduation ceremonies with your son! I have a Masters of Divinity, and in Presbyterian language, I’m certified ready to receive a call and be an ordained minister. Meanwhile, I’m on staff as Pastoral Assistant in a sweet little Victorian town west of here, Purcellville. The town is growing rapidly as a suburb of the Reston--Dulles--D.C. spread. The pastor spent 4 years—junior high and part of high school--in Clear Lake, when his dad was transferred by DuPont. He said they used to say there was an invisible highway in the sky between Clear Lake and Wilmington, Delaware. We are still dumbfounded by the coincidence.

On this past Christmas Day, Jack and I took off for the trip of a lifetime—we visited Jason in India, and Jeff in China. We’re still bedazzled.

The absolutely unpredictable providence of our gracious, loving God has been quietly and persistently at work on us and in our lives, unfolding new challenges, new joys, sweet consolations, and new ways of knowing love and peace as we have been on our journey. The ways in which God mends the fabric we tear apart, and makes use of what we thought had been wasted, sometimes takes my breath away! Rejoice, always! God bless you until we meet again.