Janet Kuester:  

Hi! I hope taking the time to tell you a bit about myself will bring my friends from St. Placid's High closer together. Since our school is closed, iwouldn't it would be great for all the alumi to get together every now and again? :-) I moved from Mira Loma, California to Yelm in 1969. It was a pretty traumatic period in my life, not made any easier by the fact that I was quite shy. I began my sophmore year at St. Placid an was quickly embraced by two friends Kim St. Amand and Pam Alexander (class of '73). They made the transition so much easier. Anyhow, we all made it to graduation and then life rolled on.... College began for me at St. Martin's College in '72 and in '74 transferred to the School of Nursing at Mary College, Bismarck, ND. (Interesting sidelight here: the sisters of Annunciation Priory who established and ran Mary College are from the same motherhouse in Minnesota as those who established St. Placid's.) I graduated from Mary College in '77 and entered the Navy Nurse Corps. After 20 years of opportunity I will forever be grateful for, as well as living 4 years in Italy, 2 years on a remote island 1300 miles off the coast of Alaska (island of Adak), being deployed during Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and 5 years of "haze grey and underway" sea duty. During my early years, the Navy selected me to go to postgraduate school to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthethist or CRNA. This means I am a nurse who administers anesthesia (you know, spinals, epidurals, general anesthesia that makes you "go to sleep") which I truly enjoy. Finally, it was time for "Mom" to get to stay home, so I retired at he rank of Commander in 1997. The best blessing of my military career is Shep. We met in Naples, Italy toward the end of my time there. I can't imagine a more romantic place to fall in love. Shep, who grew up in Ephrata, spent 21 years in the Navy, 13 of those in the Submarine Service on fast attack submarines. He was 3 months from retirement when his retirement was cancelled and he was sent to Naples. Between our two commanding officers and the encouagement of a mutual friend, we met. The rest is history... Before we married, Shep and I agreed that having a fulltime parent in the home was imperative. Because of my career, we also knew it wouldn't be me, so he was determined to be a stay at home Dad and a breadwinner, too. He did a wonderful job at this endeavor, working as a business consultant and also building an small, independent long distance phone company. I always planned to have about a dozen children, bu...Expand for more