Colleen Rose Clemons - 2008-04-07
Since the last reunion we have moved into a new larger home which is all on one level so that it is completely assessable for my wheelchair.  It is one of those cute mid century moderns called a California Ranch.  It also has a very surprising and huge family room which looks a lot like a mountain lodge.  I am able to have my work space and studio in part of the room and still have lots of room for TV watching and family lounging.

My business is thriving.  Specializing in the design and creation of couture evening and wedding gowns and theatrical costuming since 2004, I am always busy and I meet the most wonderful people.  Though my beloved Jerry will retire this December, I still plan to do this creative and satisfying work for the rest of my life.

I’ll not bore you with a list of my operations—just a quickie.  I did finally have a gastric bypass in 2005 and lost 114 lbs.  But don’t worry, the world did not come to an end—I am still big—all that skin, you know—no details—you don’t want to know.  My last operation was very special though and I am proud to announce that I am now a cybourg—honestly!

A cybourg is a being in whom machines interface with biological nerves and I now have a machine attached to my spinal cord which stimulates nerves in my legs to mask the constant pain which I have felt since 2000 when the Doctors failed at their attempts to replace my knees.   I am now in the process of coming off the pain medication which I have needed since that time and I feel so much better.

I have maintained a wonderful phone/email relationship with Charley since the last reunion and have also enjoyed communicating with several classmates.  Now that all my family is gone, my classmates seem to have become my touchstone to the past and I am really looking forward to this October.

In ’72, I married my southern gentleman, Jerry, and because I pick up accents, I have sounded like Scarlet O’Hara from late ’73.  At that time, I was a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and then a homemaker until our son Bryce was born in ’78.  After that I had a variety of jobs (teaching paraprofessionals to work with persons with developmental disabilities, craft store manager, substitute teacher, portrait painter).  However, my real job from ’80 until now was being Mom to an extraordinarily complex and breathtakingly exotic young man.

When Bryce was 13 months (not long after our other reunion), he received the standard DPT shot which resulted in autism for him.  Today he stands 6’5” and though he can’t speak, he taught himself to read and write.  His “autistic gift” is his heart.  The thing he really enjoys is helping others especially if he suspects that they are devalued in any way.  Loving people as he does is a miracle for someone with autism.

Somehow, in the process of accepting him I was able to accept myself.  My life long depression is gone and this is his gift to me.  His father, Jerry had a bit to do with my good spirits as well.  We have been together almost 32 years now and he is still the finest person I have ever known.   Though a series of medical misadventures in 2000 landed me in a wheelchair for life, there is no room in my life for sadness, not with my guys.

Two years ago, I started my own business designing and sewing for people (career ware, theatrical costuming, weddings etc.) and it is a hoot!  I have some hotshot businesswomen, a really Jazzy African-American Bishop, brothers who do Elvis and Meatloaf on stage and other assorted weirdoes.  I plan to work forever.