Ellis (Harriet) Raiford writes
Greetings, friends!
Thanks to a bit of arm-twisting by Ingrid Scholz Longo, I'm coming to
the reunion after all. Thanks to our unusually snowy winter, I had spent so
many vacation hours padding my paycheck, I didn't think I had any to spare
and, for the same reason, a lowered cash reserve! But with Ing's urging
(and her corraling of Sue and June) I worked it out.
For those of you I won't be seeing, here's an update: Worked for 10+
years here at Martha Jefferson Hospital doing CT and MRI. After struggling
for most of my life with depression, in January 2000, I very nearly succeded
in killing myself. The final straw was the rapid physical and mental decline
of my mother, with whom I had identified. Obviously I was rescued, though did
spend 5 days in ICU. An unexpected and unexplained result of this was the
hold of depression was broken, and I began to experiment with aspects of
myself that had been submerged for years.
In June 2000 I quit the hospital
(loved the work, but hated the job), and six months after declared myself
retired, thanks to a small legacy from my mother. I discovered it takes time
and work to unlearn depressive behaviors, and learn undepressive ones.
Finally in 2002, I tackled one remaining big hurdle and went back to school,
enrolling in the Adult Degree Program offfered by Mary Baldwin College over
the mountain in Staunton, VA. Majored in anthropology and art, and loved it.
Graduated in 2006. This was not intended to launch me into a new career,
but just to prove to myself I could do it. Since then I've been working
part-time at the local Barnes and Noble in the receiving department. In
other words, hefting 40-lb. boxes of books, unloading and sorting them.
Wonderfully
stress-free work! (after the old bod got used to it). P
erks include employee discount and the abililty to check out any book
that has a dust jacket! As to the Ambition/Destiny bit from our Amicus,
my destiny was to read. And I do. A lot. And thoroughly enjoy myself at it.
The pictures are of me watching a lovely
herd of goats very efficientlly and ecological-correctly clearing my backyard jungle last August.
Best to you all,
Ellis Raiford
<herfecit gmail.com>
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