I have lived in the Columbus area my whole life and have often dreamed about living in a beach house right on the ocean, as I have always had a passion for the sea. Our family goes to Myrtle Beach every year and most of it is spent right by the ocean. In the winter of 2000 we spent January through early April doing just that, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I have four wonderful girls, Teri 41, Kris 40, Karin 34, and Jenny 33, four great son-in-laws, and eight grandchildren.  When I was in High School, I had a friend who was a candy striper and it was her influence that encouraged me to become a nurse.  I attended and graduated from Mt. Carmel School Of Nursing in 1963, but did not work until my youngest was in Kindergarten.  By then I needed a refresher course, as so much had changed since I was a student.  I felt the only thing I was really good at by then, was working with the babies, so I applied to work in the nursery at Mt Carmel where I felt I was best qualified.  In my interview I discovered there was an opening in the Instructional area for new Mother's, and I jumped at the chance to apply.  For ten years, I would go to work very early in the morning to see the new Mom's and give them instructional booklets and invite them to my baby bath demonstrations.  I found being in front of a group was not intimidating because everyone there from the new Mom's, Dad's, Grandparent's, and even parents adopting a new baby, were so eager to absorb everything I had to tell and show them.  I always used one of their babies, so the demo was realistic.  Sometimes the babies cried the whole time, and at others they were good as gold.  The experience was mutually rewarding for the parents and to myself. There was a particular attorney who routinely sent his new adoptive parents to attend my class and he told me he could really see a difference in how the adoptive parent picked up and held their new adopted baby after attending my class. He also routinely sent me flowers showing his appreciation.  At that time Lactation Consultants were non existent, therefore I also was the one to help with breast feeding advice and problems, besides teaching those who were bottle feeding how to make the formula.  Also there were many parents unable to buy clothing or even a car seat for their new baby and I was able to get organizations to provide in these cases.  I really enjoyed my job and was totally heartbroken when after ten years I was replaced with a video.  I had to make a drastic change to become a staff nurse but then found that I enjoyed this new job experience just as much as my teaching job, and was also glad to be forced into this new role.  I discovered  I really like working nights and would arrive 45 minutes early just to be able to go into my patient's room, sit down with them, relaxed, and to see how they were doing before they fell asleep at night.  I especially like working all alone on the ante-partum wing, playing my soothing music that could be heard softly playing in the nurses station and being able to attend to my patient's needs myself.  I also always chose to work in the nursery at night, again with my soothing music to calm the babies, but the other nurses hated it as they felt it put themselves to sleep.  I loved my job, but one early morning in September 1997, I fell asleep at the wheel as I was driving home and veered off to the left side of the road and hit a parked car  which was shoved into a large tree, and totally demolished. I suffered a fractured sternum, and many abrasions from the air bag being deployed.  I felt this was a awake up call for me and by December 1, 1997, I had retired from nursing to take care of my husband who had diabetes for 35 years and now suffered the complications of bilateral  below knee amputations, blindness in one eye,  a stroke, many TIA's, heart attack, quadruple bypass, and end stage renal failure. After three years on dialysis he chose to stop his treatments and died  9/3/03 at home, with all of us at his side. For the first time in my life I was truly alone in this house, except for my red haired girl, Kashi (my Golden Retriever) and  quiet and loneliness are not what they are cracked up to be.  Thank goodness my sister Cyndy encouraged me to join the Victorian Bouquets in November 2003.  Your enthusiasm, friendship, and outrageous ways are just up my alley.  I love  having 31 new sisters'.  Thank you.