continued:
By then, my oldest was working in Farmington Hills living in an apartment in Utica. He said “Mom, How 'bout you sell the Dexter house and we buy one midway between Farmington Hills and Washtenaw Community College? You can use the money from the house for a down payment, we’ll take out a joint mortgage, and I will make the payments while you go to school full time and get your degree. After all, you did that for me.”
We found a home that we could afford in Canton, I sold the Dexter house, enrolled
fulltime for the fall term, and got a part time job in the computer lab. I was
following in the footsteps of my daughter who was getting her Computer Science
degree at University of Michigan. Many people told me I wouldn’t like programming
or I’d get bored with it (I haven't yet). I loved the classes. I embellished
my projects not because it was required, but because it was fun – I enjoyed
doing it. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA (high honors) after one year.
I had three great tutors – my kids. They couldn’t believe that I would
complete my projects as soon after getting the assignment as possible instead
of waiting till the last minute. I guess being more mature when going to school
is an advantage.
I found a programming job at a little company in Livonia and started the week
before I graduated. After working there about a year I knew that the ethics
– or lack thereof – of that company did not match mine and I didn’t
want to work there any longer. I found a job at HCIA in Ann Arbor. My oldest
son found a new job and moved to Denver. I found a two acre lot north of Dexter
and was able to fulfill my dream of building a little
Cape Code modular home. After three years at HCIA, I worked for Borders for
two years and then found my dream job at University of Michigan Health System.
Although it didn’t utilize my medical knowledge very much, the pay was
good, the benefits were great, and I worked with a team of good people. I can
look back and see how everything was leading me to the UMHS job. I stayed there
for ten years during which time my son married my number 2 daughter (I figure
my kids-in-law are additional kids) and my daughter married my number 3 son
in Colorado and I realized my six Colorado grandchildren (one boy and five girls)
were growing up without me. So, since fall of 2008, I've lived in a great little
townhouse in Fort Collins, Colorado. The only downside is now I miss my Michigan
family- son, daughter number 3, and 2 more granddaughters - very much.
I had attended a large Lutheran church for many years because of their wonderful
classical music program. I sang in choir and rang hand bells in the hand bell
choir 
and
was blessed to be able to join the choirs on a singing/ringing tour of England.
But the spiritual food was lacking and then the whole church became engaged
in a row over the music department. So while living in Canton, my son and I
found St. Michael Lutheran church and began to be spiritually fed.