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The VHHS "Friends" Alumni Web Pages |
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Brenda's Third Page Brenda's Biography Continued
The 1990’s were the decade of the generations. Some newly arriving, some sadly leaving. With Toby now married and stationed in Kentucky, that old wanderlust hit me again! Since it really didn’t matter where I lived as long as I had a suitcase and an airport near by, Colorado was to be my new home. Since I had originally wanted to become a Vet, ranching seemed like a good choice. I became involved with animal husbandry and cross breeding. Never a dull moment when I was home only plenty of work to do.
Getting Ready For Winter & Miss Beuford
Now anyone with a brain knows that you shouldn’t let women use "power tools"! Nevertheless, the chainsaw and I became good friends. As for Miss Beuford, I got her when she was just a cute little calf (like above) and she would turn out to be my best breeding cow. Yes folks, that is a buffalo! I was into breeding buffalo before it became popular and created new ranch wars in Montana. In the meantime, Desert Storm was in the news. Amy was now pregnant. Toby was to leave and return again, but not before the birth of his son. While we all watched the news, sent packages, waited for the phone to ring (when Toby could get to it), Amy grew larger with child. Toby’s son, Gage Nicholas was born right before we converted to Desert Storm and all the phones and communications from over there went down. Toby did get to hear his son cry long distance and several days later the bombings began. But come home safe and sound he did. And he finally met his son when Gage was almost 4 months old.
And life became good for all of us again. Toby and Amy went back their post in Kentucky and me??? Well…
I decided to try my hand at this mining thing. What else do people in the Colorado Rocky Mountains do? Of course like everything else I do, I had to do it on a grand scale…111 acres of BLM land complete with stamp mills and all the "whistle pigs" you could shoot! But I clean up real good! Way too much fun was being had by all now. The season of medical "globalization" was coming upon us. What did this mean? Hospitals were starting to close, research was no longer being funded like it had been and eventually my Foundation also closed. While mining was never to become profitable, my herd had not been built up yet in order to sustain paying the bills. My father took ill back here in California and I was coming out here weekly to deal with that. But lucky we were! Someone in town had heard that I might be interested in selling the ranch. So a cash deal was struck, the BLM land was sold and a Rider truck was rented. Back to California I came. Sadly I lost my father, but at the same time I gained something. All these years he had the one piece of paper I needed to get my American citizenship! So guess what? You got it…
I’M AN "AMERICAN"! And now it was time for me to go back to work and get a "real" job. None of this working for myself doing consulting work. It was a new planet from cardiology that I was about to enter…endocrinology. And the stranger aspect of it was, this division specializes in "male" endocrine systems. Now that’s something I can relate to! I went from using my athletic training to doing a steroid study with weightlifting. With that study completed, I started working on Aides patients with wasting syndrome. Many people seemed to admire me for it? The patient populace was more along the lines of a slow death and dying, but unknown to me this was just what I was soon going to rely on for strength. My husband, best friend, only good ranch hand I ever had was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And now I was not only doing death and dying at work, but also at home. Sadly I pronounced him dead 1 day after the steroid study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. While he never saw it, it was because of his belief in me that "I made a difference to my patients" that I excelled in medicine! While my husband and I might have had a 21 year age gap, we also had 21 action packed years together. And so, I had to stop for awhile and take some time out. And that old wanderlust struck again. Since I never seemed to have gotten that "mother" thing down right, I thought I’d take some time and see how I’d do at the "grandma" thing. So Barbie went off in search of Ken and family. And several good times were had by all.
Oh, and did I forget to mention…Toby has 2 sons now! This time he was home to help with the delivery of his second son Dylan Forrest. But Dylan’s not the last…we are currently awaiting the arrival of young master Quintin William. Eventually I went back to work. With all these grandchildren running around, I tried my hand doing pediatric oncology for awhile, but it just wasn’t in me anymore to do the death and dying routine. So I went back to endocrinology. You can find me wandering around at 0500 most days…
What’s the specialty? "Male contraception"…another of life’s experiences that I know about! Cancer struck me again twice more this past year. So who’s complaining? After all, isn’t this what our pages are all about? Those that survived graduating from Verdugo Hills High? And so my friends, the decade of the 1990’s is almost at a close. What will the next 10 years be like? What new beginnings of tears, joy and happiness will befall us? Who’s to say… In the immortal words, through the mouth of my youngest grandson Dylan: HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!
Y’all come back now, ‘ya hear?
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