Amelia Coates:  

I am Arthur and Mildred Boyken's fifth daughter. My sisters are: Sherry Denise Sullivan Hannover Kelly and she passed away February 21st of 1990 at 42 years of age from complications of multiple myeloma and annorexia; Martha Ann Rurup; Janine Beth Brandt; and Melinda Sue Bilyeu Cook. After graduating from high school I worked for three years at the Titonka Care Center as a nurse aid. Finding this to my liking, I went on to get an Associate Nursing Degree from Iowa Methodist School of Nursing in Des Moines and worked in Des Moines for approximately 8 years as an RN. I left Des Moines in 1993 to move back to Titonka and be around to help my sister with my parents who were doing great but becoming a little fragile physically. I met my husband, Robert Dale Coates by absent-mindedly placing a Personal Ad in the Globe Gazette, which, thankfully!?!, Rob answered! My dad passed away rather unexpectedly December 11, 1995, as he was going to have a follow-up angiogram, but he never made it past getting dressed in the hospital gown. He did get to meet Rob, and gave me his whole-hearted approval which I am so grateful for. Mom had diabetes, an enlarged heart, congestive heart failure and multiple sclerosis. She lived to see me married and then passed away at the Titonka Care Center with almost all of us around her bedside when she took her last long look, smiled at everyone of us and then quietly went to God and Dad. That was December 7, 1999. My husband had 3 children from his first marriage and when we married on June 27,...Expand for more