Alaska wasn’t too tough, because I lived in Wyoming and Montana. There really isn’t much difference between those places. I lived in the barracks, and I usually walked to work. A lot of people took the bus, but I walked.

There were men’s and women’s barracks. We used to go into Anchorage and honky-tonk. We would have a hell of a good time, and then come back in a cab.

That’s how I met Jack. We met in Anchorage. He called the next day after that evening.

Jack was an only child whose mother was in Pennsylvania. She was a clinical nurse, and a very stubborn old gal.

My husband was a very good man, and I loved him. His dying words were: “Mick, I do love you.”



“A Good Man, But He Never Learned to Do the Dishes”

He had pneumonia and as lungs just kind of collapsed. He was a good husband, but he never learned to wash dishes! If I was in the hospital, neighbors would come over and give him a hand.

I was married up in Alaska, and my daughter was born there, but my son was born in Texas.

I can hear his mother saying: “if my son hadn’t gone to Alaska, he wouldn’t be married to that witch today.”

Jack would come home from work and say: “where’s my witch?”

But we took care of that woman; she had the best care ever. It was in Sacramento, with the Mennonite community. We were there every morning at 9:00, because I used to work at Castle Air Force Base.

Every morning, someone from the Mennonite community would be there to take care of her until 3:00 in the afternoon.

God damn if I can remember when I got married! (Laughter). It was up in Alaska. I was married once.


A Few Words about My Kids, John and Karen

John is my youngest one, and Karen is my oldest one. I also had one stillborn.

John is a structural engineer. He’s the only one here who knew how to demolish the bookstore after the earthquake of 1989. Everything had to fall inward, because they were too many people around.

Right now, he’s working on a 32 unit housing project up near Santa Clara County.

John has four children, but I don’t see two of them very often. John was never married.  John is a very positive person, but kind of hard to live with. But he’s a very fair and honest person.  He sees that everyone is taken care of. He’s done well; I haven’t had to help him.

My daughter was in the civil service, and she went to… I’m not sure… But she is married, and she has one child.  Jason is a juvenile diabetic.  Jason is 48 years old now and takes ----I don’t know how many shots -- -- a day.

And, I have a granddaughter that’s a diabetic.  She takes six shots a day in her legs.  It’s an inherited condition.

I’m in this home because of John’s business as a construction engineer. They don’t have to worry that mom’s taken care of.  I have good insurance.  I can go to any military hospital.  I have survivor’s benefits.  My health is good here.

I may not be happy all the time but I laugh a lot.  I’ve problem that the strongest fingernails around here; you can’t bend them!  And I never drink milk.  Don’t get in a fight with me!