Dee Birch:  

Since I graduated from Morton, I received a diploma in nursing from Little Company of Mary Hospital School of nursing, BS from College of St Francis, BSN from Illinois Benedictine College, MSN from DePaul University, and a PhD from Loyola University. I attended schools at night, while I worked during the day as an RN in the operating room. As an RN, I was a staff nurse, private scrub, manager, supervisor, Perioperative Clinical Nurse Specialist, Director of Surgical Services, and a Vice President of Nursing. I taught at the U of I in Chicago for 7 years and NIU for 3 years. I have been married 3 times. It took me that long to get it right.. I met my husband in the Navy 24 years ago in the operating room at Bremerton, Washington. We were both doing our annual AT with the Naval Reserves. He is a retired Navy doc (Captain- 06) (anesthesiologist). I was a Lieutenant Commander - 03). I left Arlington Heights and NIU and moved to Vancouver, Washington to be married. I taught at Pacific Lutheran University and University of Portland for a few years, while he was working at Oregon Health Sciences University. When he retired, I was recruited by Winston Salem State in North Carolina, so we moved. I taught at WSSU for 3 years and transferred to A and T state University, where I finally retired, as an Associate Professor. The heat and humidity were way too much for me, so we finally sold our house (had been on the market for 3 years) and moved to Idaho. What a trip....We sold the house Thanksgiving 2015. We drove the 43 ft. RV with two small dogs (Peyton and Regan- Coton de tulear) through 3 white outs (blizzards) in Dumas, Texas, Denver to Salt Lake City, and into Coeur d' Alene. By the Grace of God, we made it without any difficulty. Many times, we had to stop on...Expand for more