Jane Drebus:  

You have to be pretty bored to plod through my life, but what does it matter? I'm free and fanciful and a nice person. I make no more excuses. I wrote it; now you try and finish it. J After graduating from Harrison in 1967, I got a summer job in the repair department at Indiana Bell. Bill and I had started going together senior year, and we had one last summer before we went our separate ways to college. He was working by a furnace at Peerless Pottery or else mowing the lawns at SIGECO electrical substations. Of course the summer passed too fast, and I headed East to Connecticut College, and Bill went North to Ripon College in Wisconsin. We pledged our love. I became an English major while Bill majored in beer. Before too many semesters he dropped out and joined the army. He got stationed at Fort Dix which meant he could drive to see me in New London, Conecticut on most weekends which was awesome. (In the meantime his parents had moved to Wilton, CT which is how he got stationed at Dix.) After 18 months, however, came VietNam for a year, and then Germany for six months. We had our share of separation! It was the sixties and tenuous times. I worked summers at the phone company and we wrote each other regularly during those college years. In college I began having some weird things happen. For example, the day Bill went to Viet Nam I was playing Frisbee and got double vision as the frisbee zeored in--and it didn't go away for a couple weeks. It was pretty easy to say it was caused by stress. I later saw that the window wipers in the car could trigger my double vision as well. For just one day in college I had vertigo so bad that I laughed that I looked drunk as I trudged to the infirmary. I think they just didn't believe I hadn't taken something, and I soon forgot about it. I also had a couple times when I swore I was numb exactly over one half of my body, which my brilliant internist told me was impossible. When I went to the specialist about the vertigo, he mentioned MS and I just laughed and said, "No, not me!" I couldn't have it; I wasn't even sure how to spell it! I graduated in May of 1971 and Bill got home that month on leave between VietNam and Germany. We had a few days in Connecticut then drove across country to Evansville for a couple weeks. Our separation finally ended when we were married at our church on September 23, 1972. We lived in a two-story duplex at the corner of Walnut and Rotherwood right in Evansville College world, although Bill drove across town to attend University of Southern Indiana which he graduated from as a business major and economics minor in 1975. He went to school ,on the GI Bill and worked part time. After graduating, I became a residential service representative at Indiana Bell Telephone. Bill began at Old National Bank in the vault (which they no longer have,) then was promoted to a teller. He's worked there ever since, spending most of his time as manager of the credit department, and as a bank vice president. I worked just five years at the business office of  Indiana Bell Telephone. I quit work when our first child was due in November of 1976. We were deleriously happy to be having a child, but just a tad concerned about my health. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1973 when I temporarily went blind in one eye. My several symptoms in college were explained away, but the eye problems led a brave neurologist to  make the diagnosis as probable---even though they didn't have the MRI for testing back in 1973.  When I quit work to have David, that was the end of my official "career." I thrived on being a mother; that was my blessed career. The three main enemies of MS are heat, fatigue and stress. Bill and I and my parents tailored my life to avoid these, and while I had a slight case anyway (mostly sensory and unseen,) I know I am better because I didn't push myself by doing too much. I just was not one destined to have a family and work, too. I was able to love and do all the normal parenting things. I attended the kid's sports events and other activities, and seemed normal to everyone. The kids knew mommy's legs got tired easily, etc., but didn't even know about my diagnosis until much later. Most of my life, more than half, I have dealt with things like numbness, weakness and weird stuff, but this has been mostly hidden to other people's eyes. I remember sitting at the Shrine Circus holding a newborn Robby (7-17-80) and being totally numb over every inch of my body; no one but me knew. It was temporary for a few weeks at a time the first few months he was born. In fact, back then doctors didn't know the correlation between MS and birth, and I was even advised not to have children, or "If it was so important to (me), then maybe, one child." I'm so glad I didn't listen! They now know pregnancy provides some protection to a woman with MS, at least until she delivers, when she's likely to become just a bit worse. Donna Jane was born in pink December 5, 1981 without incident.   We were incredibly blessed t...Expand for more