Janet Chell

8/10 update:

I am married, have 8 grandchildren and love life.  My husband Merle is going in a couple of weeks to have a new hip put in…poor guy.  Last summer I had a total knee replacement surgery.  I am healing, but it has been quite a long road and lots of therapy.  This doctor was the same one who did my dad’s knees about 15 years ago, so he is familiar with our family.
 
We live in Aurora, CO, a suburb of Denver:  actually a little bigger than Denver, where we have lived for over 20 years.  We have a fully finished guest bedroom with private bath, and a pull out sofa down stairs.  So, do make a stop here anytime you come through Denver…and I know that many of you do.
 
I am just now getting back into my Interior Design business, Spectrum III Designs, which has been in business for over 42 years.  Of course, I have had several other careers in between.  Have to try lots of things..
 
My oldest son, Daniel, who has four children.  He is a professional musician and is releasing his 4th CD with a few nods from the Grammy’s.  His children are:   Chantal – 18 yrs and just graduated and although she is a professional dancer, which she teaches, she is also studying to become a nurse.  Then there is Sebastian, 17, just getting ready to graduate next summer.  So far he is a professional skateboarder…(I didn’t know there was such a thing, but there is.)  Aaron is next and he is 12.  We just discovered he has Asperger’s disease and that presents a lot of pain and concern for all of us.  He is such a sweet and kind kid.  Jack, is the youngest and spends most of his time, being a boy.
 
Tim is our adopted American Indian son.  Seems that construction is his direction in life.  He is a member of the Arikara tribe from North Dakota.  He recently reunited with his biological family in No. Dakota and has found he really has a huge family there, too.  He has one son, who is 20, and lives in Texas. 
 
Jennifer is my youngest.  Jen is a CPA, has a securities license, teaches QuickBooks, and I really can’t keep up with the other things she does.  (All children are over 40 years of age, so I have to admit that I am getting old…old…old.) Jen has two children.  Rachael is 17 and is graduating early as she wants to go directly to college and into the service.  She is a 5’8” beauty with delicate features and was told she was the best candidate for a professional model and dancer.  However, she loves diesel engines and her dream is to work on those big engines.  She recently has been going through so many awful tests as they have suspected she has gall bladder problems.  Now they also think she may have Crones disease.  Feel so bad for her as she is so young. She also works about 30 hours at Best Buy, an electronics store.  But she has attacked her advanced calculus with complete verve and other such classes.  She owns a big, huge truck which sports a banner that says, “This is MY truck, not  my boyfriends”  She is in high demand to teach the fellows how to change oil, put on a lift, and many other things she has learned throughout her internships at all of the high class dealerships in Denver. 
 
Austin is 11 and is the most insightful child I have ever seen.  He reads at the 9th grade level and is a very sensitive child who has a difficult time understanding how the kids in his classes could be so mean and crude.  Mom tries to keep him protected, but at school it is difficult to always keep a watchful eye on the kids. 
 
After my dad died, 2 years ago, we moved mom to Green Mountain, Az. She lives with my brother, Don and Sister in law, Sarah, who is taking good care of her.  Don has one son, who is in his second year of college. Sister Bev is working as a comptroller at a Safari company.  She has three girls. Youngest brother, Larry, is a Baptist minister in Canon City, about 80 miles from us.  He has 3 kids, and his oldest Daisy, lives in Manila, Philippines, where she cares for abandoned babies.  The youngest daughter, Katie just made him a grandfather for the 2nd time. 
Peter will be graduating soon and works as a video-graph specialist helping the tourists capture their visits to the Royal Gorge in live color videos.
 
I am looking forward to our 50th class reunion.  How on earth did we get here so fast?  Or wasn’t it that fast?  We are happy for the blessings of family and much more.  For sure we are so enriched from our good friends from Kodai.  That link never seems to die away. 
 

Biography done in 1906

I hear dad ate peanuts for a few weeks before I was born to save up enough money to pay for my birth at a local hospital in Dubuque, IA, May 21, 1943.   I hope he appreciated me!   I was blessed to be the eldest of four children, two brothers and a sister.  

Early memories are rather sporadic and the ability to remember ages, time, and distances are bewildering at best, when I look back.   I suspect that many memories are creations of viewing old pictures, hearing stories, and snippets of my own fragmented thoughts.

Since we went to India when I was only two and my first brother, Don was only three months that is where my memories start.   We lived there for twelve years with a one-year furlough back in Minneapolis, MN in the middle of that time.   My sister, Bev, and nine years later, my brother, Larry was born in the same hospital in Kodai.   Considering our many travels, it is quite amazing that both were born a few days apart in the same location.  

There were some depressing homesick times but they were not often and certainly didn't invade everyday.    (This, so mom doesn't kill herself when she reads this and walk around depressed for a week, this experience was not only one that all of the children at the boarding school had, but it was often forgotten very soon.)    

I forged life long friendships in boarding school at Kodaikanal in southern India during the six years I attended school there.   I also had many wonderful and happy experiences at that school.   How interesting to know that my class of 30 children had students from about 11 or 12 countries?   Most of the "kids" had parents who were missionaries and were stationed as far away as Saudi Arabia and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.   We also had 4 sets of twins.   One set was from Canada, another from the US, another from Czechoslovakia, and the last were from Greece.  

After the "cultural & psychological shock" of moving from India to Los Angeles at the tender age of 14 wore off, I made it my business to ingratiate myself into the "perfect magazine" life I read about at our frightfully old issues at Kodai; in the United States.   There was Elvis Presley, (What, that was music?) and "American" money, (Why didn't they teach us at Kodai?) and definitely fine fashion ( Remember starching our petticoats with concrete??).    That was 1957.

After that we went moved to Greeley, Colorado where I completed highschool..an average student.   Knowing few options and having even fewer Higher Education Dollars, I decided to attend the University of Colorado, ((known as Colorado State College in 1957).   I majored in art, music and drama; what else from those of you who knew me?   Since it was a teaching college, I got swept along and received my Bachelor's Degree in Education.   A good thing, too!   I am still not completely convinced that I would have made it with likes of Cézanne, Gauguin, Georges Seurat and other vaguely known artists.  

After marrying a Lutheran minister, and I swore I wouldn't, we moved to Ohio, North Dakota, and Missouri where I received my Master's and taught at both the elementary and secondary levels.   Since the small burbs I taught in sadly lacked the fine arts and music programs to assure me of a job, I wrote and received Title One funding for two different programs.  

I truly loved the seven years I taught, and was disenchanted with the bureaucratic educational system in Denver.   After an extremely valiant attempt to revise it, I gave up and looked for another profession.   One day I was driving with some friends and we passed a lovely luxurious house with five Rolls Royce's in the front.   I had no idea what that man did for a living, but I decided that whatever it was, I would learn it.   Interior Design became my new pursuit.  

John and I had three children before coming to Denver, and we are truly proud of them.   Son, Dan, is almost 40...(YEEKS!), is married, has four children and is a professional musician.   Imagine how great I felt when he enrolled in the University of Colorado 20 years after I did!   He is certainly the busiest kid I know.   Besides teaching his 32 private guitar students, he is also a prof at two colleges, teaching music and guitar, heads up two bands, writes and plays gigs, weddings, etc., and has traveled to Europe on tour.   He has also released two CD's, one rock, one jazz.   (Sometimes I wonder how he had enough time to make those four kids!)  

Son, Tim, is 37 and was adopted at the age of 6 months.   He is of Indian decent, the Arikira Tribe, but until recently had not much interest in finding his biological roots.   Tim, the only one with a free college education, didn't go to college, and finds his pleasure in construction.   While making a phone call a couple of years ago, Tim accidentally ran into someone who asked him about his heritage.   Quite fortuitously, he found out where his biological family was, followed up, went for a grand open-armed visit, and then moved there.   He has been there ever since.   

Jennifer, my baby, is 36!   (That age just doesn't sit well with me!)   She is married and has two children.