I was born in 1948 and was the eldest of 5 children. I had polio when I was 2 but other than that I was a pretty normal girl growing up in the post-war era. I enjoyed watching after my siblings, help my mom with diapers, laundry and meals. I babysat for extra money, loved Elvis and later the Beatles and, then, Robert. He was the box-boy where my mother did most of her grocery shopping. He was in a couple of my high school classes and if they had had the word then, they would have called him a geek. He was intelligent and just shy enough to prove an intrigue to a pretty forward young woman.
We graduated and married right out of high school with only a couple of semesters of college under our belts. Within months, Richard was born. He was the first grandchild on my side of the family and the closest to Robert's side. Yes, he was spoiled but he was well behaved, normal little boy.
I finished courses to get a job as a medical assistant. I worked 8 hours a day, drove 3 hours and came home to cook dinner, do the washing, ironing, clean house and be back on the road in the morning for another day. We bought Robert's parents house when they moved to Oregon and in 5 years moved to the suburbs of Southern California. We found a nice big house on an acre of orange trees and settled in. We both worked hard but I changed jobs a couple of time to be closer to home.
I passed my real estate license along with the rest of the population of California and found out just as quickly that it was not my profession. I started a cleaning business which was successful but I got tired of cleaning other peoples beautiful homes. Then, I got pregnant. I always said that we had a son and,then, we discovered birth control. It took me 13 years to get Robert to consent to another child.
So, when I was 34 I had Jaymie. After she was born, I started another business which allowed me to stay home and retire Robert from a job that he'd had for 20+ years. We raised our son, now a teenager, and our daughter while working our business; our parents had done it; we could do it. Richard married. Our business grew but then something happened. Our concentration was distracted, Jaymie was having severe difficulties in school as she matured, our business was failing.
We sold our house, closed our business and moved to southwestern Oregon. We rent a large studio and tried to sell off what was left of the business. We barely made ends meet, but we were focused; this time on Jaymie's needs.
I went back to school in Oregon and got my degree in computer science.
