My name is Pam. I was born in San Francisco, California on May 18, 1943 (sixty years ago!) at St. Francis Hospital. I was the second and the last of the children born to my parents. I was raised in that beautiful city until the age of nine years, and then we migrated to the country 'for the good life'. Our new home was near a small town, called Elmira in California. Population: maybe five hundred!

Those years were wonderful and well remembered! I was fortunate enough to be able to ride my horse to school on occasion, to experience elementary education in a two-room school house, and to know the excitement of a real old fashioned barn dance. Pot luck dinners were frequent, and the best food in America was displayed; in those days women took such pride in the food they created and brought for their friends to enjoy. Fast food wasn't a word, and if anyone had said it, everyone would have just assumed that it meant, "Eat fast before it's all gone."   We did!

I married, had a total of six children, and all of them are raised now, even my little caboose, Jennie. My oldest is forty-one, and my youngest is now nineteen. After my fifth child was born, I decided to go back to school. At that time my youngest was just two years old, so I almost bit off more than I could chew! By hook or crook, I managed to graduate from a fine RN program at age thirty-eight, in 1981.

Over the years I've worked on hospital medical/surgical floors, adolescent psychiatric units, psychic trauma units, pediatric oncology departments, a physical rehabilitation hospital, and home health. Through my patients I experienced the whole gamut of emotions, from joy, total elation, worry, hope, hopelessness, sadness, pain, as well as grief. The 'professional wall' did not exist with me, and for that I am grateful. I think my patients knew that I truly loved them. I laughed and cried with them, and they knew that I was 'with them' for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, and for some of them, 'til death we did part. I retired from nursing about five years ago.

Today I live in a very small town in Idaho, and am single. I have thirteen grandchildren, have raised the last of my brood, and am enjoying my life immensely. I'm caught up in the world of graphics and design, and love the creative opportunities provided by my computer, the internet, and paper! If I die today, I'll have experienced the richest, fullest, most diversified life that I could ever have hoped for. I've been truly blessed.