Marlene Cohely:
CLASS OF 1974
Joliet East High SchoolClass of 1974
Joliet, IL
Marlene's Story
Hi there Classmates, what's up? Well with me , My husband and I just turned the corner on our 41st wedding anniversary, OH YA !!! that long !!!!! July 1st 1973 we got married.We were married in Rome, Ga. at his parents house, I met him when I was 12 and he was 13 and I used to babysit for his sister Judy S. who lived on Logan Ave, I lived on Adella Ave. He was up in one of the neighbors crabapple trees one day and saw me walking around the block with one of my friends and he asked his nephew Danny to ask me if I would be his girlfriend and I told Danny to tell him no because I thought he was ugly...Little did I know I would be dating him 4 years later and married to him 5 years later... He joined the Army in October 1974 and we were in Fort Polk, Louisiana for 3 years and I hated it so much, I was pregnant seems like the whole time I was there, I had my oldest son Joshua who is now 39 on July 9th 1975, my second son Benjamin, now 38 on Aug. 31st 1976 ( but had him in Joliet at Silver Cross ) and my Oldest Daughter Amanda, now 37 on June 24th 1977 ( she had complications at birth and was flown 400 miles away to Fort Sam Houston Texas without me for over a month and the darn army hospital wouldn't even let me hold her before she left, all they would say to my husband who did go with her for 2 weeks was get her baptized asap she may not make it ) she weighed 5 lbs 4 oz at birth and when she came home she weighed 5 lbs 8 oz. she still looked like a newborn and the nurse on the airplane told me " at least you didn't miss her being a newborn, she still looks like one. " and I'm thinking to myself, " lady I missed over a month of my baby girls life what the heck are you talking about ". ) In October 1977 hubby got his discharge papers and decided to re-enlist because he was promised he would go to Hawaii or Germany, well when he got his orders it was Fort Polk, Louisiana or Germany and I said I am not staying here in Louisiana another day, so he chose Germany...He was there until the end of May 1978, the kids and I did not go with him because he was not paid while he was over there nor could he get housing, I was on food stamps and selling them to get money for diapers and my landlady let me live there rent free because her deceased husband was in the service and she understood my situation...I couldn't work because I had a sick baby girl and on Good Friday 1978 I had to take her to Micheal Reece Hospital in Chicago because she had been constipated for more than 5 days and the catheters I was dilating her rectum with was not working any more she was 10 months old and weighed 10 lbs , Dr Bazook was his name but the Dr he didn't want to stay and do surgery on a holiday but he said she couldn't wait. ( But mind you, he told me to wait and bring her in when she could not have a bowel movement in more than 5 days and it was 6 days, you see she was born with an imperforate anus meaning her intestines did not go down as far as a normal persons and she had no anus ) So the Dr. performed her surgery and it took 5 hrs and my sister Laurenea now deceased, was with me and when the Dr. was done he came and got me and said (" surgery went well and she could not have waited , when I cut her open 5 lbs of sh%t flew everywhere and I made her butthole look authentic " ) Now say that with an Indian accent, it was hilarious ! She got to come home on Easter Sunday March 26th 1978, I remember it like yesterday, we had the worst Ice storm and I had to drive from Joliet to Chicago to pick her up. I had no one to watch my boys so I had to leave Amanda at the hospital at night which was tearing my heart out. My Sister Laurenea again went with me , the roads were treacherous , cars sliding all over the road, I saw what looked like a brand new red Camero skid off and hit the median and into a light pole. Cars turning up on their sides, I was so scared to bring my baby out in that, but I prayed and we got home safe. After Clayton got home from Germany we decided to move to Rome, Ga. and he decided to take advantage of his GI benefits so he signed up at the local college night classes for some academic courses...and he also worked at one of the many carpet mills Ga has to offer. In Oct. 1979 I got home sick and wanted to move back to Joliet , I missed my family so we did and I found out I was pregnant again....back then there were no ultra sounds to tell you what your baby was, it was wait and see....It was a long pregnancy I had complications with this one , I stayed sick, and hubby stayed drunk believe me it was not a pleasant time in my life. July 2nd 1980 my second baby girl was born Rachel , she is more like me than any of the kids, she looks like me, she acts like me and she followed in my professional steps so to speak , I am so proud of all of my kids , but you know how some listen to you and some don't? well Ben and Rachel did and Joshua and Amanda didn't and they are all living different lives...None of them are in Jail or drug addicts or anything like that LOL !!!! I just wish they would have taken my advise and their lives would not be as hard as it is...In Oct. 1980 we moved back to Rome, Ga because my hubby had a bad drinking and gambling problem, he would take his paycheck and sneek off to Chicago and play the horses and lose his whole paycheck every week and gambling was and still is illegal in Ga. except the Lottery which started in July 1993. In 1981 My mom and my younger brother and 3 sisters moved to Rome, Ga and ...Expand for more
we stayed permanently here In 1983 Hubby Clayton finally got a job he could be good at and that was selling Rainbow Vacuum Cleaners. He was top salesman of the month for 3 years running , he could sell a pair of eyeglasses to a blind man that is how good he was. In the fall of 1984 The 2 of us went with the Rainbow crowd to Jamacia and hubby was scared to death the plane was going to crash because he had a dream about it before we left and we flew Air Jamacia there and hit every air pocket that stirred up turbulance there, boy was he glad when we landed in Montego Bay...In the Spring of 1985 we took a trip to NYC it was great and this time he was for sure thinking he was going to die in a plane crash, but NOT, didn't happen...we had a great time. Also In 1984 when all of my children were in school , I went to Coosa Valley Technical College to get my nursing degree I graduated the top nursing student of my class and received a nomination for the GAOL AWARD which stands for the GEORGIA AWARD OF LEADERSHIP I was one of the top three students of the entire campus which shocked the crap out of me, I was totally not expecting that. Then to Floyd College to get further that. I started working at Floyd Medical Center in October 1987 in the Intensive care units and worked there until 1993 where I then went into Home Health and Hospice, I left AseraCare Hospice in June 2007 when I became very ill. I was diagnosed with Lupus, Coproporphyria which both are immune deficiency disorders, the latter causes me to have seizures, intermittent paralysis , of which one day will kill me, right now I get completely paralyzed and only can see and hear but one day I won't even get to do that, and when I come in contact with the sun I break out into blisters. It is Hereditary , my older brother has it and it affects his lungs , he is in end stage lung failure now, my kids have all been tested so far so good but can show up in there children.I also have Fibromyalgia since 1997 and it is hell to live with, I am up to 300 mg of Morphine a day now but I am still very functionable as you can see. I try to stay as active as I can but going outside is a no no. can't be out in the sun at all and I was an avid sunbather from age 14 to age 41(1997) when I started getting sick and no one knew what was wrong with me, until 2007. I have my good days and my bad days....In 1994 we had our house built in Kingston, Ga. where we live now...we bought 5.5 acres the house is a 4 bdr 2 bth house, we had it built when all of the kids were still at home, now it is too much for me to handle so we are looking to move in the next couple of years...Our son Ben has his mobile home here which he is trying to sell because he and his family just bought 4 acres with a 3 bdr 2 bth home on it ... and are moving in the next couple of weeks. He is the one reason I haven't gotten rid of this place yet...In June 2007 just 2 days after the doctors told me I couldn't work anymore, my mother passed away suddenly and dealing with my own demise I had to deal with losing my best friend, We had Just gotten back from our 7 day Carribean Cruise where we went to the Grand Caymen Islands, Cozumel, Belize, and Costa Maya, we went for Mothers Day, my hubby took me or let me say I took him LOL !!! I was the one working...and mom wanted me to bring her back a parrot, ( not a real one ) so I picked her out a beautiful colorful wooden Parrot that is about 15 inches high sitting on a swing and the day I was going to take it to her I got that awful phone call from my oldest brother telling me that my youngest brother found mom dead...I freaked out..Now being a Hospice Nurse and dealing with death everyday I should have handled it better but it was MY MOTHER this time....I was not handling it very well and since I was on leave for being sick my boss told me to take as long as I wanted to and come back to work when I felt I was ready. That was the great thing about working with a Hospice, they are compassionate people and they just don't act like it to their patients, they are genuine, you really have to be a caring , loving, compassionate person to be in that field of nursing, social workers, home health aides, whatever spectrum of Hospice you are working you do , you have to be all of the above, not just in it for the money because this job can and will sometimes tear you up inside. It is a sad but rewarding thing to do...It is funny, when I first starting Nursing I went all gun ho into saving lives and I loved every bit of it and was good at it, but burned out and got scared when my boys turned driving age, especially when I would work the ER I was always afraid when they said a motor vehicle accident or MVA was coming in and it was a 16 yo male that it was one of my boys, that's the thing about ER you don't know who it is until they get there...Now my nursing days are over have been for 7 years and what I do now is watch my grandchildren I have 11 grandchildren 7 boys, 4 girls and 2 step granddaughters who I love with all of my heart and soul, they are the light of my life....and today August 26 2014 is my oldest grandson Jacob's Birthday he is 16 and my grandson Blain's birthday he is 9 . ( I still have 9050 characters remaining but don't have anything else to say. This is my life after High School. ) If you would like to be my friend again, please find me on facebook either under Marlene Bates or Marlene Bates Cohely, I am listed as both because I play a lot of games :-)
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos