As promised, here’s my dad’s story.

My dad grew up during the depression and was never able to go to college.  He started working for Chevron, which was called Standard Oil when he started there in his early 20’s.  He hadn’t had an opportunity to learn a trade while he was growing up.  His family was poor and his mom was sick during his whole childhood.  She died when he was nine.

He learned to type in high school, so that skill is what attributed to what he did for a living for the rest of his life.  At Chevron he worked in the credit card approval department.  He talked to people on the phone and typed their information into a scope, which is what he used to call his dinosaur computer.  He made a decent living and had that job since before he married my mom whom he was married to for over 50 years before she passed away.  He made enough to provide for her, my two brothers and me.  We lived a comfortable life.  And I have always been thankful for the fact that my dad was never out of a job.  That was a great accomplishment for him.

As it turned out, my decision to follow his advice after high school paid off for many years as I earned money on various jobs as a secretary until I began working full-time at a newspaper. I worked there and earned a living for over eight years. But I didn’t have time to do the one thing I thought I had wanted to do for a living: write!

And as God would have it, I found that I didn’t really want to try and make a living at writing after all. I wanted to learn and do many other things. God gave me many interests like music, art, and a desire to get married and have a family someday. I am happy to say that everything has worked out to where I have the best of both worlds now. I have a great family, and now that my kids are almost grown, I have time to do all the things I love: paint, play piano and guitar and write.

Until tomorrow….