Patti Gunderson:
CLASS OF 1972
Ft. Walton Beach High SchoolClass of 1972
Ft. walton beach, FL
Patti's Story
Life
My Pets
I currently have 5 dogs, 2 planned adoptions and 3 roadside strays. My planned adoptions are both standard poodles, one black and one cream. I also have a golden mix, a dobie mix and a Jack Russell terrier. The dog population fluctuates as I rehab the strays and find them new homes.
My Kids
Both of my stepsons came to live with us in Maine when they were 10 and 12. After some adjustments on everybody's side, we got on quite well and they have grown up to be fine men that I am very proud of. My relationship with them has outlasted my relationship with their father. I just could not seem to raise him to maturity!
9-9-14
I now have no dogs, as I had to put both to sleep within 2 months of each other earlier this year. This is the 1st time in 30 years I have been dogless.
20015 (Jan.) Am now down to 1 dog, an apricot Standard Poodle, a rescue, as I had to put my 15 y/o Standard to sleep in May and my Black Russian Terrier down due to an aggressive and untreatable cancer
of the mouth.
I remain married (33 yrs.) although I haven't seen my husband since 1989. I stay married because it ensures against my making the same mistake twice I don't remember ever wanting to get married, did so only under extreme duress from all sides (I guess misery loves company) and am happy as the proverbial clam living alone in my house. Lately, I've been staying in FWB with my mother as, left to her own devices, she tends to fall down or set the kitchen on fire. She broke her leg in May and just got the boot off. I will, howeve,r be returning to my home in Pensacola soon. I have 2 brothers and a sister that live in the area in close, or closer, proximity than I did. After 8 years I have declared that it is someone else's turn to care for Mom.
Still childless by choice and, given my advanced age, I can state that this is something that will not change. I left my job with the Department of Elder Affairs in 1993 (District one Medicaid Waiver Program Specialist). I got another masters in Counseling and Psychology and was an addictions counselor for a few years. Having cross-trained in Traumatology I left that job and worked with the survivors and 1st responders from Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. As a member of the Green Cross, I have also been sent to N. California during the wildfires. I was Treatment Director at a day treatment program for adolescents on probation as well as diagnosed with substance abuse and/or mental health problems. After a couple of years there, I became disabled due to a truly horrific c...Expand for more
ase of medical malpractice. Unfortunately, this occurred at a military hospital so I am merely disabled instead of rich and disabled.
I am currently working as a writer. I have a Women's Studies college text in editing and am working on a book of essays and a novel concurrently, depending on how I feel that day. Have also been sporadically working on a memoir, thinly disguised as fiction. Don't worry, all the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
So, that's my life to date. I remain involved in liberal politics, volunteering for the Democratic Party, reproductive rights, animal welfare, and environmental causes. I can't see that as ever changing until I get too old and feeble to haul my shrunken ass to meetings. I also did a lot of work for same sex marriage but am about ready to declare victory and slack off there given the recent court decisions. YAY! The good guys do win occasionally.
I'm on facebook, having managed to escape my innate technological inability, at least somewhat, so anyone can contact me that way should you be seized by a wave of nostalgia.
2 July, 2016 -- Now down to one dog,. An apricot, rescue, Stand Poodle --Bella. I spend most of my time taking care of my almost 83 y/o mother who, in her spare time, hides her own easter eggs.
Still married and still have no desire to enter the bonds of matrimony again. It just doesn't suit me. I have no problem with monogamy but cannot stay the same, frozen in whatever Time I met you in. I used to say that anything (or one) that doesn't change is dead. However, those of you that have seen the opening credits from "True Blood" know that's not true.
Still a flaming liberal and active in liberal politics. I have been asked to run for office, but I inhaled!
Still writing and preparing to release the first things written under my own name. This is a big deal for the Queen of the Ghostwriters. You would be amazed at some of the things I have collaborated on, or simply written myself. I was always loathe to publish under my own name die to an exaggerated sense of humbleness and self-consciousness, or a fear of bothering others I knew wanted to write. Silly, but the heart, and neurosis, knows no sane boundaries.
I recently (3 years ago) lost my best, and longest term, friend in the world. You may remember Jody Roan. We were friends for 42 years. For a military brat like me, that is earth-shaking. I hope to recover some day.
I hope everyone is doing well and is happy. Remember, you deserve every good thing that comes your way.
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