Update 2010: From 2006 to 2008 I worked as a legal assistant for a medium-sized law firm. My bosses were in the estates and trusts business and one of them specialized in working with elderly clients so it was interesting work. I was laid off in December 2008, just a month after my daughter and her two little boys returned home from England to live with me until her husband returned and they could get established here. To make a long story short, things have not gone particularly well for any of us since then. I'm still unemployed although I had a temporary part-time job doing data entry for the 2010 Census. We're still all living together, except that my son-in-law is soon to be an ex as he moved out and on to a new relationship last November. I spend a lot of time baby-sitting my two darling, active grandsons (Sammy is 4 1/2 and in all day preK dealing with some developmental issues, Jake is 2 1/2 and in preschool 3 mornings a week) and looking for another part-time job. My daughter who is just short of her PhD in design and art history, has had a hard time finding a job in her field and has had a couple part-time jobs. She's hoping to get an adjunct teaching job at a college or university next semester. 11/2010 from Nancy Towle's journal of the African trip. Carlie’s family worked in Kerala. Her Dad oversaw a Christian Childrens’ Foundation orphanage. Later he moved to Korea where he oversaw 90 orphanages all over South Korea from headquarters in Seoul. In 2001 Carlie went back to India and found someone who knew her Dad, and who lived in his house now. It is no longer an orphanage, but a school. After college, Carlie married Craig, a coworker at IBM. They had 10 years together and one daughter, Caryn Ami. Craig died when Caryn was 10, of a rare disease that hardens skin and organ tissues (systemic scleroderma). It became very painful. Craig was an electrical engineer. Part of their career was in Maryland, then they moved to Florida, then to Minnesota and back to Louisiana. After Craig’s death, Carlie moved back to Maryland where she has a lot of family. She has especially kept her friendship with Nancy Kleinheksel. Carlie has had many different jobs since Craig’s death. She worked in hospices, for the Enterprise Foundation, and in a child advocacy center as personal assistant to the Director of the National Center for Victims of Crime. Carlie has helped them advocate for laws to protect victims. Caryn’s expertise is in graphics design and art history (she’s about half done with her dissertation for her PhD). Even as Carlie had been on this trip Caryn has been in great transition. Her British husband, who presently is in environmental work for the Smithsonian, just informed her he was leaving, and Caryn just got accepted to teach at a university in Delaware in her field. Carlie recently lost her job as a legal assistant, so this is a time of transition for her as well. Caryn has two sons Sammy, 4 ½ and Jake 2 ½ . They all live with Carlie. Thank goodness for the strength of family to help each of us carry through challenges! 2001 Forty years since graduating from high school seems like something
my parents should be writing about, not me!
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