Margaret Kur:
CLASS OF 1973
New Brunswick High SchoolClass of 1973
New brunswick, NJ
Madison Township High SchoolClass of 1973
Old bridge, NJ
Linwood Junior High SchoolClass of 1970
North brunswick, NJ
Edwin Markham Intermediate School 51Class of 1970
Staten island, NY
Parsons Elementary SchoolClass of 1967
North brunswick, NJ
Margaret's Story
Life
What a task to condense my life down to a little box! LOL I was born in New Brunswick, NJ, the eldest of five children. My family lived in North Brunswick until 1967, when we moved to Staten Island, NY for two years. Returning to NJ in 1969, we lived in Old Bridge until 1971 when we returned to North Brunswick. After high school we moved to Edison until 1978. Then it was back to New Brunswick.
In 1981 I moved to Venice, FL and have lived here ever since, with the Gulf of Mexico just a 5-minute walk from home. I met my husband "Bo" in 1985 and we were married in 1987. Bo's real name is Boguslaw and he is a native of Warsaw, Poland, arriving in the US in 1981 and becoming a US Citizen in 1996.
We've had no children together, but Bo has two daughters and three grandchildren, all of them grown now. This past year we became great-grandparents. We also have two cats, a Maine Coon ("Smokey") and a domestic short-hair (Bialy).
Although you'll find a lot in my school bio, I'll add here that I served for many years as a Florida Notary Public and am a former member of the Benevolent, Patriotic Order of Does, having served as the local Drove President in 1996 and as Supreme Vocalist for the 1997 and 1998 Grand Lodge National Conventions.
The most important decision that I've ever made in my life was to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at the age of 9. It's a decision that I'll never regret. My life's goal is to do God's will, whatever, wherever, and whenever.
As far as my spare time is concerned, I enjoy reading, listening to music, Bible study, gardening, drawing, decorating, and cross-stitch.
School
Having moved several times, I have memories of several schools. One of my best is finally being able to come back and graduate high school with many of those whom I'd known since Kindergarten.
Since the profile allows only one answer, I'll elaborate here. My favorite subjects were Music, Art, and Foreign Languages. My least favorites were P.E. and Chemistry (I loved Biology, though). My favorite teacher was Mrs. Thatcher in 5th grade.
After high school I continued working and took college extension courses in Theology.
Independent study of medical terminology led to my career as a Health Information Management Coding Specialist at what was then Middlesex General Hospital. I continued to work in Coding, only in a different state.
After I moved to Florida in 1981 I took professional (classical) voice lessons for a few years. Years later, I joined Literacy Volunteers of America and received training in teaching ESL and Basic Reading & Writing. While tutoring ESL, I've helped three people to pass their US Citizenship Exams and one person to pass the TOEFL.
Another of my favorite activities was working for many years with children in church, teaching Sunday School, Children's Church, and directing Children's Choir.
My most recent volunteer project was with In2Books, a reading program for grades 2-5. Each adult volunteer becomes an online pen pal, reading and discussing the books currently assigned to their students. Everyone is known by first name only for safety and correspondence is only through the In2Books web site. (In2Books is also mentioned in my Life Bio.) I'm currently taking time off from this and hope to resume next year.
What I would have done differently in school? I'd say that I wish I hadn't been so shy and had made more of an effort to get to know my classmates better.
College
This ...Expand for more
should be a short one compared to the rest. After high school, our church was accredited as an extension of Northeast Bible Institute. Our pastor, assistant pastor, a newly ordained minister (who hadn't been called to a church yet),and another man who was a retired teacher were given authority to teach theology classes.
The classes were held in the evenings at East Brunswick Assembly of God Church, East Brunswick, NJ.
The extension classes were held for two years. At the end of the second year, they were discontinued, so I had to stop taking classes, to put it simply.
Having to work full time there was no way at the time to move to a college, nor did I have a way to attend evening classes. I had thought of correspondence, but never pursued it.
To this day I wish I had continued and somehow gotten my degree in Christian Education.
Workplace
My first job was an after school part-time job as a dietary aide at Middlesex (later renamed after Robert Wood Johnson). From there I went on to my first full-time job at Gino's, which was a franchise of KFC that also sold burgers, fries, etc. I started at the service counter, then worked in the grill area. I never did get to cook chicken, but that's OK. Occasionally, the manager would allow me to assist with reports at the end of the shift. The company had a training program for "shift leaders" which my managers encouraged me to attend.
My next job opportunity opened up while I was serving on jury duty. At that time, an entry level position opened up at the same hospital I'd worked before. It was for a Medical Records File Clerk. I interviewed for it during our long jury duty lunch breaks and was hired on the spot. After a year as file clerk, I became receptionist for a year, then the directors decided I should learn how to assemble, analyze, code, and abstract medical records.
Upon relocation to Venice, Florida, I had hoped to find a coding position, however I'd have to wait seven years for one to open up. I was hired by an ophthalmologist who also had an outpatient surgery center. Oh, the things I learned there...scheduling, insurance, A/R, A/P, performing various types of eye exams, dispensing and writing prescriptions for eye meds (under the doctors' supervision) and for eyeglasses. I also would assist with writing text for standard forms, patient information, and procedure manuals.
In addition to my working outside the home, my husband and I owned and operated a landscape maintenance business, for which I handled all the administration while my husband worked on-site.
In 1988 a coding position opened at the hospital and I worked there for over 15 years. I was also the Department Safety Coordinator for more than 10 of those years. In 2003 my job was eliminated and after exploring several avenues, changed my career entirely.
For awhile I worked as a temp in media research analyzing TV viewing data.
Now I'm working two part-time jobs: in the customer service department of a major supermarket and as a sales associate in a department store outlet.
Life goes on... Oh? My dream job? Don't get me started, please! I have so many interests that I honestly don't know which one I would pursue.
Update: My husband Boguslaw "Bo" passed away on January 11, 2019. He had Alzheimer's Disease for approximately 6 years.
We had moved to seniors apartments in Port Charlotte, FL in 2015. I retired in late 2016 to be his caregiver. Now I'm still living there with my cat Pumpkin.
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