Debbie Schmidt:  

Hey, check out my bulletin board to find out more. Also myspace. I got on myspace to moniter Jill, then classmates for curiosity, now facebook because of a contest Ellen Degeneres was having. David and I dated in High School. We have 2 children and I guess are the typical high school sweethearts story. We were married in August of 1982, you do the math. We still have some of the same old friends and family is the most important thing in our lives. We have both lost our dads and our moms are still in Moody in their 60's and 70's. Our oldest daughter graduated in 2004 from Moody and our youngest is in 7th grade. She played and will play v-ball and b-ball on the same court that her mom, dad, aunts, uncles and grandparents played on, and yes it can be very hot and loud but still a cool concept. We are still in contact with or see Sharon, Benny and Karen McNiel, Stephen Schmidt, Karen Coulter, Scott Cummings, Cynthia Robertson, Angela Melton, Sharon McNiel, Cyndie Watkins, Kelli Searcy, Carolyn Talley, Cookie and Jackie Searcy, Brenda Beerwinkle, Ruth Jones, Dennis Nelson,John Dennis Perryman, Joel Hueske, Jamie McNiel, Billy Jack Goodwin, Perry Marshall,Pat Perryman Kitchens, Anita Russell,Michael, Vickie and Chris Aycock, Perry White, Mike Perryman, Betty Brown, Jeff Slentz, Tina Brown, Bobby Goodwin, Michelle Burgess,Steve Hubbard, Frank and Shelby Lofton, Sonia White, Judy Marshall, Renee Watkins, Jackie Robertson, John, Joe Bob and Irene Gutierrez,Pam Johnson, Ronny Marshall and so many others of our old classmates. We get to see their children and sometimes glimpse the old days. Dad died when Jess was in first grade and it was very hard on all of us. Hospice was a Godsend and helped us very much. Dad would wonder just like we all do, "How come?", and I remember talking to him at length about how he was really getting a good chance because he lived for several years and had some really good moments with friends and family and was able to make amends like cleaning up the yard for mom finally. He was also able to witness to his friends about how he knew that he had been sick for a good while but he kept "hiding" from it because "what if it's really something bad?", and it was of course but if he had gone in much earlier he would have had a better chance. He would tell them, "don't make the same mistake that I made." and they would listen. I told him, "see, that's what you are supposed to do now and that will help alot of people.". There was a young Dr. at MD Anderson that would marvel at how strong and young dad was and he wanted to do this and that and take out his lungs and get him some new ones, he seemed so intent on trying to save dad but the older Dr. was like look, it's everywhere, we will only make the short time he has left without much quality of life. It was so hard for me to see both their sides without getting bitter and only seeing what I wanted to see. I was able to come to grips with it but it took me a lot longer than I realized and really affected my family in how I acted. I remember so many vignettes of those years. Taking dad to the Dr. in McGregor the first time that he knew he couldn't put if off any longer and taking the x-rays to Sonia's office at the Moody Courier and putting them up on the light table we used to set up the newspaper and asking her, "what is that, is it his heart or what?" and thinking, oh no and we just looked at each other. The first Dr. had us an appointment with an onclogist in Waco just in a few hours so we were just trying to look real fast because we knew by the rush that it was bad. I remember taking him for radiation day after day at Waco Hillcrst Radiology and the office was so gloomy, the people would try to be cheerful but it was so hard. We hadn't been to radiation in a while and dad had gone through a real "salad" period, gaining weight, feeling robust and healthy and we walked into the office and the nurse said, "Hello", pretty glumly and then looked up and said, "Mr. White!, you look so good!" and it was so exciting to see that office just bubble when everyone came out to see dad, you could see on their faces their jubulation because they were so unused to seeing people look joyous and "fat". I remember going to another oncologist and it was my birthday and he came in with some new x-rays and put them up on the light screen and I looked at the film and my mind thought of giant dandelion seeds floating around all over dads lungs and feeling like, "heck, it's my birthday" like a petulant child (even though I was in my 30's) and then thinking, "how can you be so selfish and feel sorry for yourself, this isn't your body that's being attacked", but it was so hard. I remember p...Expand for more