Sandra Fitzgerald:  

Life Wow, where to begin, so many changes. After graduation, I went to KC for my AS, then to EIU for a BS in ED; I worked for the Dairy Council doing Nutrition Education for 23 years. No, I didn't have much to do with the cows, although previously I had taken temporary job on a dairy farm, working as the record keeper/payroll clerk, after college while I looked for a real job to use my degree. I got to name all those purebred cows, several hundred head of them. So at one time there were a lot of lady cows bearing my name and all my friends names some where in the middle of their long pedigreed names. I don't know how long cows live especially those that are bred year after year, but it was kind of fun at the time. I took the job with The Dairy Council in fall of 75, and married Dennis Lindsey from Effingham in fall of 76. (He died in 2001 after a long battle with MS.) We had three beautiful children, Heather born in 78, and Jonathon and Tara born in 81, yes they are twins, what fun! I decided to return to school to get my master's degree in Dietetics (EIU) when the twins were 4 and Heather was 7. What on earth I was thinking at the time?, I don't know. I worked full time and went to school nights and weekends so it took a while, but I made it. Graduated with honors in 1990, took my RD license exam, passed it first time out (whew...what a relief!) Continued to work for Dairy Council until 1999, left due to a neck injury and surgery. When all three kids left the nest at once to go away to college (Heather had still been close to home due to going to Lakeland for a couple of years, before transferring to the U of I.) I decided to run away from home also. I had bummed around in the big empty house by myself for awhile. and when they were all settled and happy in school, I took a job with State of FL Dept. of Public health and moved to Sebring, FL to work on a Cardiovascular Intervention Project. Planned on staying 15 months but the grant kept getting renewed each ...Expand for more