When I was 12 and in 7th grade I came down with encephalitis. Spinal taps confirmed this. I was in a
coma for 7 weeks and when I came out, I could not talk, walk, write, feed myself or do many things I used
to. Also, from the cortisone I had retained fluid and therefore was larger than I had been.
Anyway, I slowly got well and went back to school. They made me repeat 7th grade but then let me skip
8th so I could be with my friends. (The rules were a lot more relaxed then.) I went on to college and got
my BS in elementary education. I then returned to my hometown of Charleston, WV where I got a 3rd
grade teaching job. It was '74. I married my college boyfriend the next year.
In 1980 through the grace of the Lord, I got off valium. I had joined a gym and also intensely prayed to
quit the drug I had taken for 15 years. It worked!! I am now drug free. I also got a divorce at this time. I finally resigned and moved to Florida.
However, I was asked to quit my teaching job. A lawyer friend of the family's advised me not to. He said
he could get me a Mercedes out of it. Anyway, I resigned. (They convince you it was in your plan to write
slow, etc., and you're not worth much) I then began working in my Dad's cleaners. In '85 I moved to
Florida and began substituting. That is what I do now.
In 1988 I was blessed with a baby boy. He is a joy to me. He fills out forms and does stuff for me. He is
a Boy Scout and on the AB honor roll.
Love,
