Pat Maryon Weihe Critchfield Keeping HOPE Alive
I have so enjoyed all the e-mails and being thrown back to the days of old. What a nostalgic trip it's been. Unfortunately, I will not be able to be at the reunion - I had planned on it but life takes strange turns and now it is not going to be possible. Please give my regards to all. There's always the 50th!! Thought I'd give you a little bio and a recent picture. Here goes - the abridged version.
After leaving Alemany, I went to Valley State for a year and did a short stint in a sorority (this will be significant later!). My parents decided to move to Goleta to be closer to my sister who had just lost her husband to help with her 5 (yes count them!) kids, the youngest being 6 months, so I went along and did my next year of college at UCSB. I then transferred to UCLA to get my BS in nursing. I did a short stint of working in a hospital and decided to go back to grad school at UCLA to get my MN in community mental health. During this time, I reconnected with Ed Calaba (Alemany class of '65) but I was dating another guy who would later be my first husband, so Ed and I parted ways. I married in 1973 and we then moved to Mammoth for a year. When we returned in '74, I finished up grad school and started working as a director of nursing for a home health agency, which I did for most of the rest of my time in CA. I divorced in 1982 - a very significant year for me - divorce, my father died, and I did 2 marathons. I remarried to my current husband in 1998 and we made the decision to move to Boulder in 1990 as we both were longing for a different lifestyle. Once in Boulder, I got a job as director of the home care department at Boulder Community Hospital where I stayed until '93. I then went to work as a geriatric care manager until I got a job in '97 as client services coordinator with Boulder County Aging Services Division where I am today. I supervise a staff doing care management work and also am in charge of our information and assistance program and a grant funded program called Project HOPE. The picture I'm enclosing is of me and a volunteer who works with me to put on an annual fundraiser - Keeping HOPE Alive to support the grant program which provides services to frail older adults to keep them out of nursing homes.
It is very interesting how life takes the turns that is does. My current husband has a distant relative who I met at a family wedding in the summer of 2005. Turns out he was a coach at Alemany after we graduated - his name is Bernie Kyman. He now coaches in Pear Blossom. He and his wife joined us for Thanksgiving last year and we started talking about Alemany. Turns out he is friends with Joe Dispensa's brother. So then I get out my yearbook and he sees Ed's note to me and says he coaches a girl with the same last name. So he goes home and talks to her and she is Ed's niece. So Bernie connects with Ed and then Ed calls me! What a small world. In talking with Ed, I find out he married one of my sorority sisters that I introduced him to when we were at Valley State - (I didn't remember this at all but I believe Ed!) Thus the connection from my first sentence!!
One of my great losses in life is never having been able to have children so I take my maternal instincts out on our dogs. Currently a yellow lab named Lucy. I still run, but not marathons, work out at a gym and am so grateful to live in such a beautiful place as Boulder - we call it 10 square miles surrounded by reality!
I regret not seeing everyone but please send my regards and know that I will be there in spirit.
Pat (Maryon) Weihe Critchfield
After leaving Alemany, I went to Valley State for a year and did a short stint in a sorority (this will be significant later!). My parents decided to move to Goleta to be closer to my sister who had just lost her husband to help with her 5 (yes count them!) kids, the youngest being 6 months, so I went along and did my next year of college at UCSB. I then transferred to UCLA to get my BS in nursing. I did a short stint of working in a hospital and decided to go back to grad school at UCLA to get my MN in community mental health. During this time, I reconnected with Ed Calaba (Alemany class of '65) but I was dating another guy who would later be my first husband, so Ed and I parted ways. I married in 1973 and we then moved to Mammoth for a year. When we returned in '74, I finished up grad school and started working as a director of nursing for a home health agency, which I did for most of the rest of my time in CA. I divorced in 1982 - a very significant year for me - divorce, my father died, and I did 2 marathons. I remarried to my current husband in 1998 and we made the decision to move to Boulder in 1990 as we both were longing for a different lifestyle. Once in Boulder, I got a job as director of the home care department at Boulder Community Hospital where I stayed until '93. I then went to work as a geriatric care manager until I got a job in '97 as client services coordinator with Boulder County Aging Services Division where I am today. I supervise a staff doing care management work and also am in charge of our information and assistance program and a grant funded program called Project HOPE. The picture I'm enclosing is of me and a volunteer who works with me to put on an annual fundraiser - Keeping HOPE Alive to support the grant program which provides services to frail older adults to keep them out of nursing homes.
It is very interesting how life takes the turns that is does. My current husband has a distant relative who I met at a family wedding in the summer of 2005. Turns out he was a coach at Alemany after we graduated - his name is Bernie Kyman. He now coaches in Pear Blossom. He and his wife joined us for Thanksgiving last year and we started talking about Alemany. Turns out he is friends with Joe Dispensa's brother. So then I get out my yearbook and he sees Ed's note to me and says he coaches a girl with the same last name. So he goes home and talks to her and she is Ed's niece. So Bernie connects with Ed and then Ed calls me! What a small world. In talking with Ed, I find out he married one of my sorority sisters that I introduced him to when we were at Valley State - (I didn't remember this at all but I believe Ed!) Thus the connection from my first sentence!!
One of my great losses in life is never having been able to have children so I take my maternal instincts out on our dogs. Currently a yellow lab named Lucy. I still run, but not marathons, work out at a gym and am so grateful to live in such a beautiful place as Boulder - we call it 10 square miles surrounded by reality!
I regret not seeing everyone but please send my regards and know that I will be there in spirit.
Pat (Maryon) Weihe Critchfield
Boulder, CO
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