Wendell Pettus:
CLASS OF 1961
Bob Jones AcademyClass of 1961
Greenville, SC
Mt. San Antonio CollegeClass of 1964
Walnut, CA
Baldwin Park High SchoolClass of 1961
Baldwin park, CA
Bob Jones AcademyClass of 1961
Greenville, SC
Landis Junior High SchoolClass of 1957
Baldwin park, CA
Wendell's Story
Life
Hello everyone who I may have known in school or at work. I welcome your friendship again. I graduated from BJA in 1961. The next year, I attended Mt.San Antonio Junior College and enrolled in their commercial flight training course.I got the pilots license in '62. In 1964,I was drafted into the USArmy.Went to Germany in '65. Got married in '66 with one year to go.Took my new bride to Fort Bragg,NC so she could help me enjoy the Army Life.We had a wonderful life that first year.Still have a wonderful life after 36 years. Adopted a daughter in '72 and a son in '75. Worked at Union Ice Company in Holly Wood and Van Nuys for 11years,The Hilton Hotel 3yrs, Grayhound for 3yrs and now Leisure World in Seal Beach for 16 yrs as Maintenance Mech. and Electrician, Picked up the California C-10 Electrician license in 1997 and the EPA Technition Certification in 1993. You need that to buy freon for Air/Conditioning systems. Well I hope to meet some or all of you in the not too distant future. Maybe at the reunion.
This past Spring, My daughter and I flew to Atlanta, Georgia to drive to North Carolina for a wedding of a nephew. We passed through Greenville for a look at Bob Jones University. Took a tour of BJU. Had a wonderful time of remembering back what it looked like in 1961. There are a few changes
Now to fast forward to the year 2008. the year was almost non eventful. I was still at Leisure World working there for 21 years. Carol and I celebrated our 42 year of marriage, but I was in the hospital recovering from an auto accident so we had to put the wedding anniversary on hold and then I was ready to go home except for the permanant damage to my kidneys. But God was gracious, I have to do dialysis until I can get a kidney transplant and God has stayed with me through this time of poor health. I was able to go see my youngest sister and the next youngest sister came for Thanksgiving day. The card game picture. I have gone through 27 weeks of dialysis 3 times a week and I had to retire from my job which was very hard to do. The visit with my youngest sister in Minnesota enabled me to visit Mayo Clinic and I was able to do 5 dialysis treatments there. I am continuing to work on my new diet many of my favorite foods I can no longer eat and I am awaiting for the next event of my life with gladness and Thanksgiving. Blessings to you my friends.
Just add a little note here. It has been over a year since I started dialysis treatments. I am getting bored laying around the house and so I decided to go back to college. There is a Junior College, a community college close by. I have been there a few times before. Today I went to take the assessment tests one in math. It has been along time since I did algebra problems. I did the test the first time and somehow it didn't get printed and so I did it all over again and the second time around I improved my score! and I was very careful to make sure that I printed the test and saved it to the registrar desk. Another hi light in my life, I have a live kidney donor. I just have to get healthier , lose some weight. lose the pot a little at a time. My weight last Friday was 97.5 kilos. I have to go to 90 Kilos. Ok I am running out of room. So I'll sign off now and say bye bye. My dear wife is still with me. I tell her that I love her every day. She has to take me to dialysis every time I go. She is my sweet heart. We celebrated 43 years in July. Ok I am finished.
Fast forward to March 08/2010. I was telling you that I wanted to go back to school. But that never happened the classes were full sure I was disappointed but I had just started playing the piano again. I was remembering all of these old church hymns, I would wake up in the middle of the night humming them and say to myself what was that song better write it down and then when I had a list of them I learned to play them on the harmonica and then I started playing them on the piano. I had piano lessons when I was a teenager and so I knew what the notes were and then I figured out what the chords were for a couple of keys and soon I was playing the piano again with no music just by memory and by ear. A couple of months ago in December I asked the Physical property manager of the church where we attend If I could start practicing on their pipe organ and so I have been playing the pipe organ in three practice sessions a week for two months. And three weeks ago I asked if I could be a part of their service for the first service. I just play one piece in the first service for the offertory. I just got started doing that I have only played for three weeks. I am having a blast playing that organ. there are two manuals and then the foot pedals play the bass notes and then the different stops for all of the sounds.
I have been attending this adult education class in landscape painting in water colors one day a week. so I have been kept busy no time to get into trouble and I still have to do the dialysis three times a week. My kidney donor volunteer found he has slight heart problems and so now he can not be a kidney donor. So I will just have to be patient and wait the three to five years. Two years has almost gone. In June two years will have gone by. I will need to start losing some weight now. I am now down to 98 kilos consistently. I hope every one who reads this will really work hard to maintain your good health. It is no fun to be sick and have to be going somewhere several times a week for treatment ( dialysis ) So take good care of yourself. I want to see you at the car club reunion picnic this coming May and also the 50th reunion next year. Good bye and God Bless--Wendell PS My wife Carol and I still live in Southern California were are coming up to 44 years together.
Folks here I am again, I just rejoined classmates. this is the year of 2012. Oct. 31 halloween night there is going to be a block party at the church opened to the public. Ok My wife is still with me we have been married 46 years. I am still playing the pipe organ at church and I am attending one class a week ...Expand for more
at APU a local Christian University. I am still doing dialysis at a local dialysis center. When I checked out of the dialysis center today I weighed out at 90.2 kilos. wow. Write to me someone tell me how life has been treating you.
I will add something to this epistle. The date today is December 20, 2012. Only 10 more days of 2012. Than we will see 2013. The bad luck year. Just kidding of course. I am not superstitious just wary. Just when you think things couldn't get worse, they get worse. Yesterday I was in the OR at the local hospital getting my fistula checked out. the nurses at the dialysis center were complaining that the blood flow was too slow going to the dialysis machine. so it was back to the operating table to have a check up. this is with no anesthesia and nothing for the pain. I say to myself it is going to make a man out of me and put some hair on my chest. I have been watching organ recitals on you tube. check out J.S.Bach sometime. sometimes you get the video and you can watch them playing with the hands and the feet. They play bass notes with the feet. This week I was doing kidney transplant evaluations at USC Medical Health care center. getting checked out for a new kidney one that is recycled, but I am told that I might have to wait for two more years. I have to come to the conclusion that I may never get a kidney, I may have to face that realization. My disease came down from the past. a parent had the disease and a grand parent had the disease. My younger brother got it two years ago and a sister has problems with her liver. the name of the disease is Poly cystic kidney and liver disease. The Dr. checking my kidneys with the ultra sound told me I have it in the liver too. My dear wife has been so caring and supportive of me. We were married 46 years ago in July of 1966. I was serving in the US Army, stationed at Fort Bragg North Carolina. I went home on leave the last week end of June and the love bug bit me. I knew it was my least leave. I had used up all my leave time and so I told my sweetheart. Let us get married and than you can come to live in North carolina with me and she said yes. we had been engaged for 18 months already but she was in Southern California and I was on the East coast. What a way to spend your time courting someone. But she was sticking it out and when I said let us get married at the end of the week, she said "Yes". and so now I am thinking what she has gotten herself in for. don't let Ms Markham read this, I will get a D for sure for this report. But we went through some trials in 2004 and again in 2006 when my wife was battling cancer. so now she is almost cleared of it but she goes in every four months for a round of chemo a day and half in the hospital to make sure the cancer cells are still playing dead. we are trusting God to take care of us but it starts with me I have to watch what I eat or drink. With the kidneys not working right or at all, I am not getting rid of excess water and so I have to curtail my drinking H2O any other liquids are forbidden like alcohol.
And I have to watch phosphorus intake and potassium intake there are several foods that I can not eat because they are high in potassium. ok you have probably read all that you want to read. sorry but that is my life for the past four and a half years.
Hello friends, let me update you a little It is now 2014 and last December 30, 2013 we were down the coast a little near Ocean Side on a Monday morning December 30 we just woke up and were deciding where we wanted to go to breakfast it was a short distance to the ocean and we decided to go to the warf where we saw a place to order a fish dinner. Than the phone rang our cell phones first mine and than my Wife's. I couldn't find my phone in time. Cedar Sinai was calling me to tell me that they had a kidney for me I told them I would be there as soon as possible as we were in Ocean Side. They said or told me just get here in one piece and don't have an accident getting here. We drove North on I-5 until we got to LA an on through LA on the 101 freeway to Beverly Blvd. We got to Cedar Sinai about 11:00 AM and checked in at the South Tower and I went to dialysis they had asked me the last time that I had dialysis and I told them on Saturday in Ocean Side. every time we went anywhere out of town I had to make arrangements to have dialysis. After dialysis, I went into a 5-6 hour surgery to have the donor kidney transplanted into me they had to hook the kidney to a large artery and to a large Vein and to the bladder. The next week well Tuesday , Thursday and Saturday, I had dialysis and than I was on my own the transplanted kidney had to do all the work. The creatinine was up to 10 and now four months later it is down to 1.8 it has been that low for four weeks. I had to go back to the hospital two more times for other issues but now I am feeling great. My wife has stuck with me through very difficult times at first I was too weak to dress my self and she had to do that but know I can rake a shower and get dressed and I am walking more even though the temperature is over 100 degrees F. I went back to playing the organ about three weeks ago and driving my car. So that is my story about how I got a kidney transplant. The kidney came from an out os state donor and I am thankful that person was generous enough to donate his or her kidney to me after they passed on. I asked at the hospital how many people can benefit from one person donating his organs upon his demise and I was told 54 people. So I am asking each of you to donate your organs upon your demise look how many people can benefit. At first I went back to the post transplant center at Cedar Sinai to have a blood test and urine test done to see how well my new kidney was doing. after four months I was allowed to go only once a month I just need to keep taking my anti rejection drugs and drink plenty of water about 2 liters of water a day and more if I am out in the heat of the day. blessings to you my friends. I will write more later
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