Mary Kelleher:  

I've been living my life backwards. I dove into motherhood and marriage at 18 with David Baroh, who was a sweet, sweet man. We had two children: Julie & Robyn. While the marriage didn't last past 7 years, David & I were friends until his death several years ago. The next twenty-some years were spent in the Bellingham area, which I loved dearly. I went to Western in my mid-thirties and got a BS in biochemistry (yes, I know; I'm as surprised by that one as you are), did a year in a doctoral program in neuroscience at UBC, but then decided I couldn't carve up small animals for science. I worked as a chemist at an oil refinery for ten years, and then did a mid-life shift and became a marriage & family therapist specializing in working with families who have a member with a chronic or terminal illness or chronic pain. I have a real passion for what I do, and I have spent the last 5 years at the University of Minnesota working on a doctorate (which I hope to finally finish in 2011) and seeing patients while helping to train new family medicine docs in relating to their patients. When the dissertation is over, the plan is to return to Seattle to be with my children and hopefully take a faculty position locally. Anybody know of any openings?!? My children seemed to have survived my less-than-stellar parenting and are beautiful inside and out. Julie is 39 now and has been married for 14 years to Ben. She's an artist, printmaker, and illustrator of fairy stories (and she's done quite well with it). She also plays bass and sings (all shades of David, although I like to think that I had a creativity gene I passed on, too). Rob is 35, single and works for the City of Seattle; She's been known to dabble in writing screenplays, but mostly she excels in being empathic and caring (not to short Julie -- she also has those qualities). Together, they have turned out to be compassionate, thoughtful, generous people; David would be so proud. Something else: both girls have spent the last 6 years skating in the Rat City Rollergirls Roller Derby League. I'm both very proud and more than slightly bewildered about that lifestyle choice (it doesn't fit with my gandhi-esque/buddhist ethics, but what the heck). So I am the mother of two roller derby queens. That was not part of my life plan. . . Another thing: as I aged I found that the name "Mickie" no longer seemed to fit who I was, so I went back to using my real name, Mary. However, I will answer to Mickie on occasion. This year saw the death of my brother Ray, who was in the class of '71. He had had Hodgkins disease in adolescence (as David did) and died forty years later from the eff...Expand for more