Linda Backes:  

Honestly, I know there were some really fun times- the bonfires before a game, the majorettes twirling fire, and the float parties. Going to States for Basketball was the best, and I can still hear the crowd yelling, "We're the C-H-A-M-P-S!! But so much of high school was painful for me that I have trouble recalling many details. When my parents began their split, my life spiraled into what felt like a dark abyss and my boyfriend Jeff, away at Western, could not hold me up from a distance. I ended up getting engaged senior year, in spite of everyone's warnings, but the beautiful son that came out of that relationship three years later actually helped me to re-balance, end the facade, and seek happiness from within. I remain friends with the Mazzoni family, and to this day send cards and share weddings, funerals... all the stuff of life that keeps those kinds of ties held together. I moved to south Florida, went to cosmetolody school to earn money to get through college. I, married a second time to a supportive and good man. Finally, I achieved my life's dream of becoming a high school English teacher and I absolutely loved my career and embraced my students with a love of life and literature. Another divorce occured when my second husband turned to Budhism and I just couldn't connect, so I became a single working mom with two sons. Somehow I was resilient. Three's-the-Charm gifted me with an enduring relationship, and Ted and I soon will celebrate our twenty-sixth year of marriage this June. My sons are now grown, and I have ...Expand for more