Kara Marks:  

Life After graduating from Nathan Hale in '79, I went to OSU for one yr.--I was a little sister to the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and lived in Wentz dorm. My mom died my freshman yr., so I moved back to Tulsa for my last 3 yrs. of college. I graduated in '83 w/ my BS in nursing from the Univ. of Tulsa. I worked for 3 yrs. in Tulsa, then got married in '86. My now ex-husband is a band director, and we lived in Pryor for 1 yr. and then in Ardmore, OK, from '87 till '00. I've loved being an RN and most of my career has been working in OB--I also was certified to teach childbirth classes and loved that too. I have two sons--Nathan was born 11/09/88 and Chad was born 01/24/93, and they've been the light of my life. I developed symptoms of multiple sclerosis in '92 while pregnant w/ Chad, and was diagnosed in '93. It's been pretty mild for me in comparison to most people, and I usually walk OK, but it's gotten harder and harder to work--I have a lot of dizziness, some intermittent visual disturbances and severe fatigue, along w/ some other minor things as it has progressed. I've also developed other autoimmune illnesses and in Jan. of '12 was diagnosed w/ breast cancer. It was just stage one, small lumpectomy under my arm, radiation daily M-F for 6.5 wks., no chemo. No fun, but very minor in comparison to what a lot of people have been through. I'm updating this in Dec. of '14 and so far so good, no recurrence. I moved to Edmond from '00 to '06--my ex-husband was completing his master's and then his doctorate, and since I was no longer working, it made it easier to share our kids. I moved back to Ardmore from '06 to '10, but that relationship has ended, so I relocated to Adrian, MI from 2010-Aug. of 2014. Nathan graduated in May of 2012 w/ his degree in criminal justice from Adrian College --his dad is a music professor there, so there was the added benefit of free tuition. He's very talented musically (I can't take the credit--he got almost all of his talent from his dad, but he's also worked hard.) He plays several instruments, has a great voice, writes his own songs, and has had several bands as the lead singer. He's now a juvenile probation officer, living in Tulsa and working out of the Okmulgee office. He's engaged to the sweetest, prettiest girl ever and they made me a grandmother while both were still in college, but she graduated on time in 4 yrs. w/ honors in May of 2013 w/ a bachelor's in music. She's a very hard worker and a good homemaker and she and Nate are great parents; she's working at Palen Music in Broken Arrow and they are thrilled w/ her. Nate had looked for a yr. for a full-time job using his degree and could only still find part-time work in MI or nearby using his degree, so they moved to Tulsa in July of 2013, which broke my heart, since they took my grandson w/ them! I used to be able to babysit him daily when they were in school, other than needing a little time off during my little cancer problem, and I babysat him frequently, 20-40 hrs./wk. after that. Elliott Raymond Vaughan Marks was born on 4-15-11 and he is now 3 and the most lovely child ever. I was so blessed to move back to Tulsa in Aug. of 2014. It's nice to be back babysitting Elliott, right now just 3 days/wk., but starting in Jan. it will be 5 days/wk. His mom and dad cl...Expand for more