After graduation, I went to work at Wisconsin Bell as a Long Distance Operator. In 1962, the travel bug bit classmates Mary Ojeda, Jackie Mathews and I so we toured northern Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada in my ’57 Chevy. After a year of saying “Operator,” I quit and went back into healthcare at West Allis Memorial Hospital.

In 1963, I married classmate, Delbert Couillard and we have three children (two daughters and one son), 7 grandchildren ranging from ages 9 to 25 and one four year-old great-granddaughter. Three grandchildren reside in Texas and four live in the Milwaukee and New Berlin area. At age 36, our son lost his 5-year battle with brain cancer in 2008. Delbert and I divorced in 1981.

While raising a family, I continued to work in healthcare and later at the Amron Corp. as a Quality Control Inspector during the 60’s and 70’s. After my divorce, I went to work as an Advertising Exec at The Waukesha Freeman. There, I had the creative opportunity to develop my writing and designing skills for the print media.

In 1987, I married Jerry Christensen and his job with AT&T relocated us to Eau Claire. Together, we had six children. We spent 10 years renovating a 1920’s home while enjoying our little cabin in the north woods, Winter, WI. We enjoyed building and refinishing furniture, bow hunting, boating, fishing and x-country skiing while we raised 


my son and his two sons (our daughters were grown and in pursuit of their own dreams). We traveled the entire southeast of the country. My oldest daughter lived in Charleston, SC for 7 years and after the Army, my son lived in southeast Texas until his death. Jerry and I also spent many years tracing and archiving our ancestral roots.

While living in Eau Claire, I attempted to make some career changes. I fulfilled a life-long dream of becoming a Clown and working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I attended and graduated as “Smiles the Clown” from the world-known Clown College at UW-La Crosse in 1990. There, I met many clown wannabes from different countries. However, I did flunk “Juggling” —don’t laugh! Juggling is hard, as it requires one to use both sides of the brain at the same time.

At the same time, I obtained my state license as a Hearing Aid Specialist and worked for Beltone before pursuing a college degree as an Educational Interpreter for the Hearing Impaired. I wanted to clown for deaf and hearing-impaired children. However, after three years of study, arthritis impaired my hands and my dream died.


 


In 1994, I finally graduated from College with a Marketing Degree, honors and chosen as the Student Commencement Speaker. Two community and public relations college internships provided an on-going format for clowning around. In 1996, my husband and I treated ourselves to a cruise as we both had quit smoking and I finally got that degree. 

In 1996, I traded in my bow, skis and fishing pole for dance shoes. I joined The Arthur Murray Dance Studio where I worked part time as the studio's  Marketing and Event Coordinator and learned Ballroom, Swing and Latin style of dance. I competed in regional dance competitions and won several awards. Dancing is in my blood, so yes, I do watch “Dancing with the Stars!”

During college, volunteer work led me to the Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild where I worked on all aspects of community theatre and continued to volunteer with the Eau Claire chapter of Make-A-Wish until I was hired as Special Event Coordinator for Reinhart Retail Group’s 12 retail stores. It was a blast—creating promotions and having my store managers win some event competitions. But, after budget cuts (downsizing) and a divorce in 1997, I left Eau Claire and relocated to Madison. Who doesn’t love Madison?  There, I established myself as a certified Motivational Speaker and Corporate Trainer on how to use humor to manage professional and personal stress. After two years, family circumstances brought me back to Milwaukee with numerous other stories I wish I could share. Who says you can’t go back—I now live in West Allis, a few blocks from where I was born.

In 2003, a MVA forced me into early retirement. For the last three years, I have been involved in a new creative passion, Loom Knitting. As a Fiber Artist, I design apparel and home accents and teach this old art of no-needle knitting at several Senior Centers in the Milwaukee area. To keep the spirit going, I formed Club Loomineers for social networking, supportive help and for sharing ideas. The club donates their handmade items to charitable causes in Milwaukee and Waukesha County. In addition, in 2011 I formed H.O.L.Y. Loomers Ministry (Hooked On Looming Yarn) at my church to knit hats and scarves for needy parishners.





I still dance, but ballroom, not so much. I've been taking Irish Folk Dance lessons and hope to dance at Milwaukee's Irish Fest.


 


Besides watching my grandchildren and great- grandchildren grow and blossom, some of things on my "Bucket List" include finding FUN again, to travel to the northeast and northwest, Branson, Europe, Ireland, cruise the Mediterranean and Alaska, attend a Jimmy Buffet Concert and finish writing my stories and publish all of my ancestral data into a family DVD and book.


 


Looking forward to seeing you all at the 50th - as Elvis would sing... "It's NOW or Never"—so don't miss the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.

P.S. A real NOW picture coming soon. . . .