Linda Brown:
CLASS OF 1968
Franklin Heights High SchoolClass of 1968
Columbus, OH
Linda's Story
Life
This has been another hard year for us. Bill lost his mother last October, and I lost my dad to leukemia this October, 4. I have always been very close to my dad -- especially during all the chemo and treatments. I miss him so much.
Bill Brown and I have been married for 40 years. We live in Miami and love it. Bill just changed jobs to return to the company he helped start about 15 years ago. He's the COO and a member of the Board of Directors. He loves being back with his old partner and doing the kind of architecture he loves. I teach 10th grade gifted World Literature and 2 special classes for the University of Cambridge at G. Holmes Braddock Senior High, one of the largest high schools in the country. I am so lucky to teach the brightest and the best of 5,000 students. My students are mainly Cuban or South American -- just like most people in Miami. They are very nice and loving young people who make my job challenging and fun. Our oldest son, Chad, is married to Luciana Alvarez from Peru. He's a construction manager for a developer and is working on a huge highrise condo project downtown, and Luci is an architect working for PBS&J. They have a little boy who is 4 year old, Renzo Alejandro and a little girl Allyson Michelle who is 2 years old. Ally has Downs Syndrome. Chad and Luci live about 40 minutes from us in Plantation. Our daughter, Jennifer, has a marketing degree but is a very busy mom right now. She will finish her Master's in Math Education this Spring and hopes to teach. Teaching has been a great career for me and has enabled me to spend time with my kids and my family. She also wants to be there for her children and yet have a career. Teaching is perfect. She is married to Andy Reid who is a writer for the Sun Sentinel Newspaper in Palm Beach. They have 8 year old Benjamin Casey, 6 year old Zachary James, and 4 year old Courtney Rebecca. They just moved to South Florida from Tampa 5 years ago, and we really love having them 1 1/2 hours away. Now we can see them weekly. Our youngest son, Kevin, has a doctorate in Industrial Organizational Psychology and is married to Olivia Granda who is working on a teaching degre...Expand for more
e. Kevin is an Associate and Compensation Manager for PBS&J. He and Olivia live about just across the fence from us. Kevin is also a professor at Florida International University. He enjoys the mix of corporate and academic life. Four years ago Kev was diagnosed with Churg Strauss -- a very rare autoimmune disease that attacks the arteries, lungs and heart. He had myocarditis, pericarditis, and tachycardia. He was in ICU for 2 weeks, and he had heart surgery on our anniversary while we were in San Francisco on vacation. Kev became sick on our anniversary, and that evening Olivia called and told us Kev was going to have emergency heart surgery. The trip home was the longest and hardest trip of our lives. Kev is back to work now, and 2 years later, he is doing fantastic and his heart is perfect. We are so thankful to have our son alive and hopefully in remission soon. He took 80 milligrams of prednisone a day for months, but now he is down to only 5 milligrams a day plus Imuran -- a form of chemo. His heart rate was 160, but now it's down to 70 - 80 heartbeats per minute-- much better! We had never even heard of Churg Strauss until this, and it is something we wish we had never encountered. We hope he will continue to a total recovery (he's almost there) and a long and normal life. We all went to Hawaii to celebrate Kev's recovery one year after his surgery. He now has a 15 month old baby boy named John Oliver - we call him Jack. Churg Strauss has become a major part of my life. I spend many hours online with CSS patients telling them about Kev and his recovery. When Kev became sick, we did not know where to turn or anybody to talk to. I hope there are a few people better off from Kev's experiences. Our grandchildren love going to Disney for weekends with Grandma and Grandpa, so we go there often. Living in Miami is stressful during hurricane season, but the weather and Disney make up for all of that the rest of the year. It's hard to believe we have lived here since 1989. We are almost natives by Miami standards, but we still go to Ohio often to visit Bill's family -- all of my family is here in Miami. We will always LOVE the Buckeyes and OSU.
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