Jenny Tharp:
CLASS OF 1969
Portage High SchoolClass of 1969
Portage, IN
Jenny's Story
After graduation, I worked at the Valporaiso hospital from 1969 to 1970 and then relocated to Miami, Florida where I lived for 10 years. I met and married my first husband in 1972 with whom I have two grown children and a grandaughter. We moved to New York in 1980 but got divorced in 1987. I worked in management for corporate fragrance companies and later in 2002 moved back to Florida to assist in the care of my elderly mother who passed away in 2010. In the years between 2002 and 2010, I renovated, designed and managed a 4 story, 4 unit building in Brooklyn, New York via website.
I had plans to attend the high school reunion in 2009, but my younger brother, David Tharp passed away suddenly in July 2009 which left me very sad. With my mother passing away in 2010, I decided to begin writing, something that perhaps has always been inside of me. So I published my first book through Trafford Publishing in 2012 with my second book, Comes a Soldier's Whisper published in 2013 and now available online with Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
My thoughts have often drifted back to my ...Expand for more
graduation in 1969 and not knowing what to say to my male classmates who had been notified by the draft for Vietnam. Since publishing my Father's letters in Comes A Soldier's Whisper, letters written as a 101st Airborne paratrooper in WWII between 1943-1945, those thoughts of my classmates came flooding back. I wonder what happened to them, if they returned back home safely. I hope so... My father and brother both suffered from PTSD. It was only after publishing my Father's letters and sharing with my ex-husband, that he opened up about having the same disorder from serving in Vietnam. He never spoke of this while married to me except to "make light" of it. And so, I find that this book is mushrooming and taking on a life of it's own with the focus that we need to pay special attention to and support our troops, past, present and future.
If anyone cares to visit the Comes A Soldier's Whisper book website with special focus to supporting our troops and PTSD, feel to just visit or share a veteran story. I would love to hear from you.
All the best,
Jenny Tharp La Sala
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