Therese Hartmann:
CLASS OF 1975
Nordhoff High SchoolClass of 1975
Ojai, CA
Therese's Story
Life
Life has gone full circle for many of us, including myself. I'm residing back in Ojai and own a mortgage business in town (Hartmann Mortgage). I am also the Executive Director for the World Family Foundation, a non-profit that helps orphanages in India and South America as well as broker for REIN Club, a real estate investment club. I own a duplex in town and live upstairs with my mother and stepfather downstairs. They came to live with me after the slide in La Conchita where they lived. I have 4S hih Tzu's, a house sparrow I rescued, a squirrel family, three turtles, 2 parakeets & many, many goldfish in my outdoor pond. Yikes!
I had been in a fourteen year relationship that has morphed into a very nice friendship and then ended in September 2006. After about 8 months, I began dating again and am enjoying a beautiful relationship with someone who is Japanese/British background. My time is now spent reading, traveling, bicycling, hiking, working, helping. The other thing that has been full circle is that I'm back riding my bicycle. Those of you who knew me in High School might remember that my bicycle was one of my best friends and I regularly cut classes to train for races. After having surgery for a serious back injury in 1997, I didn't think I could ride anymore and was devastated. Doctors told me that I shouldn't even sit for more than 15 minutes at a time and put me on permanent disability. Being a true Hartmann, and not being able to sit still for very long, I took myself off of disability and started my mortgage business. Getting back on the bike in April of this year was a nice surprise but finishing the #13 woman in a field of 8,000 riders in a 50-mile Rosarito Beach ride shocked even me!
The whole Hartmann clan is a little more spread out but everyone is healthy and happy and raising families. John and George are in town working as electricians, Jerry is in Napa working as a prothestician, Steve has...Expand for more
a thriving landscape boulder company, Patrick is a CPA and buying up half of Santa Barbara and David is teaching Outward Bound clases for teens and loves it. I have no children of my own but have 14 nephews and nieces and count the children in the orphanage as an extension of my family. I was in India in January 2007 to take all the kids from our orphanage on a field trip. I still have this image of running alongside the train holding hands with the kids until we could hold hands no longer. Then about a hundred little hands waving out the train windows until the train disappeared into the horizon!The kids love to dance and play and are so appreciative for everything. It's a real honor to be connected with them.
I don't know about the rest of you but I really don't miss High School at all. It was a part of growing up but I remember it as a time of trying on different masks and making an effort to balance who I authentically was with fitting in. Modular scheduling seemed to kind of put a damper on school spirit since many of us were exploring off-campus pursuits and not spending as much time with each other. Still, it was really nice seeing many of the familiar faces at the last class reunion held at Boccali's. It was a huge shock to see Kenny Strasser and then find out he died just a couple of months later. He was such a big hit at the reunion that it made me think that somehow there was a subconscious knowingness that this was his last hurrah. Well, as time goes by, there will be more and more of us dropping like flies so I hope we can all agree to treat life as the sacred gift it really is and make each moment count.
Hope to hear from you and find out how you're doing. Anyone from Nordhoff is invited to write to me. If we were friends before, wonderful, and it would be nice to catch up. If we didn't know each other, let's get to know each other. Each of us carries a beautiful message. I'd love to hear yours.
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