Tragedies? My dad’s death. He was 42, and he had a sarcoma in his lower back. Because he was working with appliances we thought it was a simple back strain. He was diagnosed, and died about six months later. I was close to him. He was a good guy, but strict. No makeup. I’m glad he met John and liked John. That was good.

My father’s father, my grandfather was in a motorcycle accident when he was about 66. My dad was in high school at the time. My grandfather was hospitalized for a long time, but dad would come home, get me and we would go out and visit pop. For a kid who was interested in hospitals and nursing and that kind of stuff, this was a special time.

I’ve been pretty darn fortunate, knock on wood. We did have a scare with Anda when she was about two years old. She was hospitalized for a week, but she came out of it.

For the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 we were living here in Corralitos. We were fortunate. All the other homes on this road had so much damage that they were red – tagged. But because we live on a curve I think we were protected. We lost windows but we didn’t lose our structure.

Around the same time as the earthquake, John’s mom died of breast cancer. That was hard; that was December of 1989.

Triumphs? My marriage to John. I love him and we’ve been married a long time. I’ve got three great kids. I like where my career has gone. I pride myself on certain niche events such as being in the top of the class.

I think the best way to deal with empty nest syndrome is to change a job.


I Fly to New Orleans to Help Katrina Victims

I went to Louisiana less than a week after the hurricane hit. I ended up in Lake Charles.

I worked in a shelter for people with medical problems. It was a huge gymnasium at a state university. When we got there, there were 60 or 70 patients; some children, some older folks. They all had reasons they couldn’t be in the larger shelters. I was there for about ten days, and they gradually moved these people into skilled nursing facilities. Some were reunited with their families. Some went to Texas.

When I left there were still about 30 people in the gymnasium. A few days after I left, hurricane Rita hit. The building that we were in lost the roof, but I was home by then.

A Patient in Her 80’s Floats to Safety on Her Air Bed

Hearing the stories of these people was just phenomenal, just amazing. One woman who looked angelic, with a full head of white hair and beautiful skin was lying in bed.

She had limited motion in her left knee. She and also had right hip surgeries that had not gone well. It took about three people to get her into a chair; she wasn’t particularly small.

She had been in a nursing home that had been flooded. She was on an air bed, which is a low – budget way to prevent bedsores. But, it floated!

Her mattress was punctured, but her roommates’ mattress floated by. She grabbed her roommates’ mattress, dragged herself off of hers and floated out the window. She said she went under water three times and she knew that if she had gone under a fourth time she would never have made it.

Then she was rescued. Here was a woman in her mid eighties, with limited mobility. You wouldn’t think that she would’ve had the strength to hang on to anything let alone on a mattress but somehow she survived.

Another guy was rescued by helicopter. As they were pulling him up he lost his pants. The only clothing they had was a dress, so he had to wear a dress.

I didn’t get a chance to survey the destruction because I never really left Lake Charles, but I saw lots of pictures. At one point they were going to move us, and I could have gone to take a look, but I really didn’t want to. You could go to New Orleans but until it was organized you couldn’t really do much; you just kind of sat around.

One of the paramedics though had been down there for days and he shared all of his slides with us. It was pretty tough.

I went to New Orleans because it was a time in my life when I could. This was a horrible disaster. We’re all still recovering. Anyone who thought they could do anything would want to go, and I did.

I can see why people do the disaster relief over and over again. It’s critical. You go there thinking that you’re going to help, but you end up benefiting so much more. You really do. I don’t know what happens; there’s something there!

Some of the people I worked with had been to Darfur and Sudan and Kenya, and other really bad places. They had been in Iraq, Bosnia, all sorts of places.