Kathy Matthews:  

Life Following highschool, I worked at Weld County General Hospital for five years. During that time I acquired a national accreditation for medical record management. I moved to California and worked in hospitals for thirty-five more years. I have one daughter, two step-daughters and three grandchildren. I obtained at teaching certificate from UCLA and taught medical record science at the junior college level. Currently I am divorced, self-employed and living in Southern California. I am very active in the Unitarian-Universalist fellowship and have taken training to become a lay minister. I have a certificate as a massage therapist and do that on a part time basis. School I started at Pleasant Valley School with Mrs. Read where, iin first grade, they found out I couldn't see. A week of doctor visits in Denver and I returned wearing glasses. I fell in love with Johnny who also had glasses and told us when he grew up he was going to marry every girl who wore glasses. I dreaded third grade, there ruled the wicked witch of the East, Mrs. Kruse who beat children who were unable to learn the lessons. I avoided this by moviing and my next school was Frankliin elemenetary. My second love, Gordon, died of leukemia and Mrs. Kimball had a very hard time explaining to me why he didn't return to school for the third grade. In the winter we made snocones with maple syrup. At Franklin, Mr. Triplett was a big influence, channeling me into reading. I will always remember hanging fom the bars by my knees, jumping rope while chanting rhymes, pickup sticks and jacks, playiing Siimple Siimon Says. Binky, Bobbie and Buck, Marjie and Verda. There were others who came and went and have faded from memory . We moved into town the year I started at Meeker Junior High and I was close enough to walk to school. I had nightmares about Meeker (andhigh school) for many years. Today I would probably be diagnosed as ADHD and perhaps dyslexic so school was always a challenge. In Mr. Lloyd's class I occupied myself by designing bathing suits for a cutout doll. I remembered facts by the geographic location on the page where I had scribbled them. If I had to rewrite them neatly they were gone from my mind. There was my fiasco with the general science teacher for which I was sent to the principals office. He told me I could not transfer to another class and would have to suffer through the class in order to have enough credits to pass and that every student runs into a teacher now andthen that they just don't like (and was dumb to boot). So live with it. I vowed that to keep from losing my mind, I would write down every word the teacher said. In fact, I would PRINT every word he said. I did pretty well, including drawing pictures. That skill of taking notes has served me my whole life. Also my printing was far more legible than my writi...Expand for more