Shari Davenport:  

Life Married 7-28-76 to Sr. Airman Don Davenport, USAF; lived in Hampton for just over a year after that, and moved to Indiana 9-1-77. Children - Diane born 7-27-79, Chris born 4-25-81. I am a Surgical Technologist, Don is a Master Transmission Tech. Diane - Married 5-5-2001; she and her husband Matt have presented us with seven fine, handsome grandchildren - five boys, and two granddaughters - Isaac Matthew was first on June 28th, 2003. On April 10th, 2005, Isaac helped welcome "little" brother, Jacob Ryan into the family! He's a handsome, healthy little boy - and he weighed in at 9-14 and 22 inches long! Most recently, in November 2006, they greeted the third bud to blossom on the family tree - Asher Micah came to join the family! He's gorgeous, healthy and happy - just like the rest! And we have learned a few months ago that Grandchild #4 is in the works and is due to "bloom" in June of this year! And on the evening of June 17th of 2009, we were blessed with the most beautiful little granddaughter we could have hoped for! Her name is Rachel Pearl, and as her name implies, she is a real gem! She's got three older brothers to help look after her, and along with the rest of the family, we love her as much as any grandchild could ever be! Since then, we have a grand total of seven grandchildren - two granddaughters, and the five boys! What a great team! Along with their parents, and Uncle Chris, all seven youngsters are Grandma's and Grandpa's pride and joy! UPDATE- April 2, 2022 - We are currently sitting on proverbial "pins and needles," waiting for news of the impending arrival of granddaughter #3, and grandchild #8!! Yes, as mentioned before, they are all siblings! She's due any minute now, but I don't think she got the memo regarding her ETA! I'm sure her mama is much more anxious than we are!! No name yet, as they always wait until they are introduced to the newest member of the family first, and then see what seems to "fit" best! Then, we find out what to call our latest new "bud" on the family tree! Hubby and I are both members now of the Retired bunch. HE retired last October, as he was getting very close to reaching his full retirement age; I had a bad fall in August which landed me in the ER via ambulance; and required his attendance to me 24/7 once I got back home again. No broken bones, thanks in part to my lifelong love of milk, and later Vitamin D and Calcium supplements, leaving my bones nice and sturdy; but soft tissue injuries are frequently much more painful and debilitating than broken bones. He was "on vacation" from work, still getting paid for almost a month, while I recovered and became more independently mobile again. We decided together, after some investigation, that taking his retirement just short of a few months was not going to make enough of a difference to wait out. And his benefits even so turned out to be equal to his take home pay! Go figure! Plus my own Disability on top of that, PLUS a previously unknown "Spouse's Bonus" where SSI calculates what half of his benefit is, and what my own benefit is, and if my own isn't making up half of his, I get an extra payment to bring mine up to that level! So, there's a little more on top of what we already were supposed to be getting just on our own. If this is "Socialism" bring it on! I sure - actually we BOTH - contributed our share over our own working lives to EARN this, and we aren't in the least shy of taking what we worked so hard to get. We don't have anything even approaching an extravagant lifestyle, we never have. So, at this point, retiring on just our Social Security benefits alone has been easy. And there's money left over at the end of each payment period, and that goes into the savings account along with the rest. So far so good! He's enjoying his retirement a lot! No clock to punch, not 45 -65 minutes of insane traffic each way to get there, no bad, snowy, icy roads to contend with to get to it, and he can sleep in anytime he wants to! The "work" is generally easy and undemanding, and its not hot, greasy, dirty, and physically damaging! Spending over 48 years working under all kinds of vehicles for all kinds of employers is more than enough for anyone, and he's earned this! School Attended several different schools through the years, due to my family moving quite a bit. Made it difficult to establish and maintain many friendships, but there were a few who still stand out. The special ones know who you are! College Attended Ivy Tech State College beginning in 1991, Class of 1993, Graduated Magna cum Laude in Surgical Technology with a Technical Certificate. I went back to school again, several years later - this time to finish out my Associate's Degree in Surgical Technology, and again it was another M...Expand for more