with small classes of 1-5 students that only went up to 8th grade. In fact I was the only student in 8th grade! For 9th grade I was back in Auburn – about 900 kids in 3 grades. Talk about culture shock!! I was also cold all the time so I was really looking forward to returning to Asia. We arrived in K.L. in May 1968 and I joined the 3rd trimester of 9th grade. (By the way, I loved the trimester system with the 1 month off in between!!) And it was a great 3+ years at ISKL.
After graduation I went to Seattle Pacific College as planned and graduated with a degree in chemistry and then went on to do a 12-month internship in medical technology at a Seattle hospital. After the board exam I started working full-time at the lab at Everett General Hospital, about 30 minutes north of Seattle. We had a busy ER and lots of exciting cases came through, everything from ax murderers to heart transplants. I really enjoyed my work there. I started out working 2 graveyard shifts (11pm-7am) and 3 evenings per week. I was all alone when I worked the graves so it was a lot of responsibility and a bit daunting at times! After 2 years I was able to transfer to days. Eight years later I started a very different job in a small one-person lab in a Pediatric Clinic nearer to my house. It was the clinic my daughter went to and they actually asked me if I would be interested in helping them out because the technologist had been called for jury duty. I worked there for 4 years but only a few days a month, just enough to help out and keep myself in the field. In 1991 we moved to France...more on that to come.
Meanwhile, I met Don at my church in Bellevue (20 minutes east of Seattle) in 1973. At first we were just part of a large college-age group, but eventually the sparks lit and we were married in January 1979. Don is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, but spent most of his growing up years in New Orleans. He graduated from the University of Washington with an Engineering degree. Our daughter, Laura Beth, was born in July, 1983. When she was 3 years old, Don was asked to go on a trip to Holland/Germany for work. Laura and I decided to go along and the one-month assignment turned into 2 months. Of course I loved being overseas again and the trip gave Don the bug, too! We put in for a foreign assignment and in May 1991 we moved to Bourges, France for a 2 yr assignment that was stretched into 3 years. Laura attended the local French school (2nd-4th grade) and became fluent in French. She especially enjoyed the 2 week trip into the Alps where they learned how to ski! We made the most of our time there and spent week-ends and vacations seeing as much of Europe as we possibly could. We moved back to Bellevue in 1994 but still keep in contact with several French friends and have gone back twice for visits. One strange thing from my time in France…I saw Pieter Kat on TV! There was a British wild animal documentary on about Kenya. I wasn’t really watching it but heard them say something about “Pieter Kat” and thought how ironic that I knew someone by that name, too, and then it showed him talking and it was definitely the Pieter I knew! I was SO excited and had no one around to tell it to! There I was, an American in France, watching a British show about Kenya, and seeing a Dutch person who I knew in Malaysia! That was a catalyst to try finding our class, but I didn’t really know how to start.
For those of you who knew my parents, they continued working in Malaysia until 1974 and then relocated to Hong Kong. My dad’s missionary administrative work took him all over Asia, and H.K. was a great place to fly in and out of. They lived there until 1988, when they relocated to Singapore. We were able to visit them several times in H.K. and once in Singapore. That was in April, 1990, and at that time we also flew up to K.L. for a 24-hour visit. I wanted to see our old house and visit ISKL again. Of course the school was all new but I saw both the Daniels and Mrs. Sundram and Mrs. Mahendran. I saw Mrs. Kailas, too, but she didn’t remember me. It was so great to talk to everyone. I tried to find the old ISKL but the roads had changed so much that I couldn’t even find where it used to be. Mr. Daniels had warned me that I probably wouldn’t be able to find anything. Anyway, it was a great visit, and of course after that I was going to come right home and try to find old friends, but...! My parents moved back to the States in 1993 but continued their missionary work with trips overseas until my dad died in August, 1994. My brother, Dave, graduated from ISKL in 1974 and currently pastors a church in Jakarta, Indonesia. You can check out his complete bio at www.isklclassof74.com. Sherry Harris Whitehurst first contacted me in 1999 because we had both registered on the fledgling ISKL website. She worked diligently for several months tracking down several people using the growing Internet and we had the emails flying between us as our database grew. Mom and I attended the Vancouver Reunion in 2000 that LeeAnn hosted and since then things have really exploded in finding old friends, although people also get lost again as email addresses change so often!
When we returned from France in 1994, I didn’t try to go back to work. I enjoy staying at home. While our daughter was younger I always helped out at her school, but now that she is 22 that is definitely behind me! Laura just graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a B.A. in sociology and is busy working at her first “real” job and wondering if she should go on to grad school. We all keep busy at our church and I especially enjoy working with the missions program so I am still “active” in overseas life as I read all the newsletters and mail that come to us from all over the world.
Now I think more about retirement and reunions! Sometimes I manage to send out a Christmas letter. Gerrie Greathouse Rihiimaki and I have kept close contact that way and have managed 3 visits over the years. I’ve also seen Sondra Stafford Bocchieri a couple of times. Sid Stewart’s daughter teaches at a school just a couple of miles from my house so we almost made contact one Christmas when they came out for a visit, but of course that turned out to be the exact days we were gone to Kansas City to spend Christmas with Don’s grandparents! I hope this website will encourage some visits and that one day our reunion will be realized! Everyone, please send me or LeeAnn your “life update” and let’s all keep in touch!
