Donna Kitta:  

Life I graduated from Wright State University in 1978 with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing. Subsequent to that, I attended the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, and became an Air Traffic Controller, which I loved. Initially, I worked in Bloomington, IN, then Carbondale, IL before returning to work at Dayton Int'l Airport in Vandalia. I've been back in Vandalia since 1982 where my husband and I raised a son and two daughters, all of whom attended St. Chris for their grade school education. Our son, Brad, is married to a wonderful woman named Jennifer. We have two granddaughters, ages three and seven. Our oldest daughter, Brandy, graduated from college with a degree in Air Traffic Control and works at the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Indianapolis handling transcontinental flights traveling between the altitudes of eleven thousand and sixty thousand feet. That's a long way up there.....almost twelve miles into the atmosphere! She is engaged and will be married on Sept. 5, 2009. Our youngest daughter, Brianna, has a passion for showing horses and has been successfully doing so for 15 years. She also trains and gives riding lessons. She currently is training and exercising thoroughbred race horses, which she loves. My daughters, one of their boyfriends, and I just went into a partnership on two thoroughbred race horses and will begin racing the two year old in the fall of 2009. Brianna is a nursing major in college. She also has a son, Hunter, born in April 2009. Although I enjoy traveling, my main focus in life is my family and faith. They have always sustained me through good times and bad. I retired in June 2008 because my father was very ill with cancer and needed care. My sister, Patty (with whom dad lives) and I tend to his needs 24 hours a day with the help of hospice. I take care of dad from 7:30 AM to about 4:30 PM and Patty takes the evenings and weekends. He is no longer able to do anything on his own. My husband is currently retired because his career job was contracted out, but he still works in the field of meteorology full time. I too have taken the same job as him, part time, in meteorology and weather observing since retirement, although I usually work only five or six shifts a month on weekends...just enough to feel part of the workforce! We celebrated 27 years of marriage this year and look forward to many more years together. I look back fondly on my years at St. Chris and am glad to have had the firm foundation which was laid there. St. Chris is still my church home; however, most of the faces have changed as people move in and out. My five brothers and sisters live in Kansas (Fred), Colorado (Mary), and Ohio (Craig,Patty and Teresa). Our dear mother unexpectedely passed away in August 2005 and dad just recently passed on on April 26, 2009 from metastatic melanoma...RIP dad and mom. In addition to traveling, I enjoy bike riding (when it's not too hot!), walking, cooking, reading, and tending horses with my daughter. I also enjoy spending time with our granddaughters and my new grandson. My favorite vacations are anywhere in the Rocky Mountains, especially dude ranches and whitewater rafting. We have taken some wonderful family vacations and I have particularly enjoyed the vacations taken with my sister Patty, her husband Tony, and their family. Patty's children and mine are more like siblings than of cousins! I'm sure my life has a lot more to tell, but sum it up to say that it's been a great life. I am truly thankful on a daily basis for each person in my life and for all God's blessings....even just being able to breathe, talk, and walk (I saw that drained from dad and became very appreciative of the small "stuff" in life). Life is too short to not appreciate each and every moment we are given, and to trust God to be in co...Expand for more