Cheryl Newell:  

When I graduated from Malabar, I went to work as a secretary for a year, then a medical transcriptionist at Mansfield General Hospital. Then in Feb. of 1973, I moved back to my hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. I continued to work as a secretary. I met my first husband there, Johnny, when I had to take my car into a Plymouth dealership for service. He was the service writer. After coming into the dealership 3 or 4 times for car problems, he asked me out to lunch. We were married in Oct. of 1973. We had one child, Jonathan, Nov of 1977. Johnny became a police officer. I started RN school for an Associate Degree in 1981, graduated May 1983 and became an RN. After working several years, I worked full time while going to night school to get my BSN, which I finally obtained in 1998. Johnny and I were married 19 years but he had many emotional issues because of being abused as a child. Many times during our marriage, he went to counseling. We separated Jan of 1993 and our divorce was finalized July of 1993. He later passed away in 2002 after a rejected bone marrow transplant done for leukemia. Our son took it very hard at the time, but handled all of his dad's funeral arrangements. I met my current husband, Benjamin, July of 1993 and we dated for a year. I was very skittish after the problems in my first marriage. But Benjamin was a total adult, a loving hands-on father, someone who could be a total partner in a relationship. We were married June 18, 1994. When I met him, his son was 10, and his two daughters were 6 and 2 1/2. He had them most of the time. Since I was only able to have one child, it was a joy t...Expand for more