Patricia Carlson:  

Life I started out in Minnesota and moved to Washington in 1957. I spent time in eastern Washington while having kids and putting husband (#1) through college. We moved back and forth from eastern Washington to western Washington several times as my husband continued his education and took various positions. I also lived for three years in Nebraska. Finally, I went to nursing school in Idaho as an adult with two adolescent children. My nursing career focused on maternal-child health, initially, and then branched in to a number of related options. I then worked in the volunteer management field (March of Dimes and hospital volunteer director). I even became a "drug pusher" as in pharmaceutical sales and finally went back to nursing at the bedside at Bailey Boushay House in Seattle caring for AIDs patients. This proved to be the most challenging and rewarding of all my jobs. I cared for and about 200 patients, all who died, in the almost 5 years I was there. This was very emotionally taxing but I would never have changed it. I learned a lot from my patients and about myself during this time. I injured my back in 1997 and did not work at all. I retired with a pension in 2002. Somewhere in there I divorced the father of my children and married and divorced husbands #2 and 3. They are still good friends and we keep in touch. My dau...Expand for more