The mountains of southwestern New Mexico have been my home for forty-three years. My parents are both teachers. I am the eldest of two girls.
When I was eight months old, I became mysteriously ill. My mom said that after that episode, I would cry and move in my sleep. I stopped trying to stand, and barely crawled.
Most of the early years were spent trying to find out what had happened. Mom stopped teaching to be with me. The doctors weren’t able to really determine what had happened. At the age of five, they finally ran every test they knew, and said it might have been polio or polio-like. I am weakened, but not paralyzed..
Mom worked hard to get me up on crutches, but I couldn’t lock my knees or take a step by myself. She did lots of physical therapy with me. Nothing worked..
Mom wanted me to go to public school in a regular classroom. She always said that the only difference between me and the other kids was that I couldn’t walk. The kids adjusted quickly to me, but some of the teachers were resentful of a handicapped child in their classroom (a story for another time).
By junior high, things went fairly smooth. We still had to work with building accessibility (wheelchairs and stairs don’t work well), though. Also, certain teachers thought I might be slow or retarded. I made up my mind that I would make A’s in every class, from then on.
I did make straight A’s for six years. I graduated as co-Valedictorian of our class. Along the way, I had several English teachers encourage me to write. Mrs. Nolan and Mrs. Thomas showed me the beauty of poetry.
I went on to Western New Mexico University. Mom drove me to each class, and then waited in the van. My major was Computer Science with minors in English and Biology. I graduated at the head of the class with a 3.975 GPA.
I tried to publish poems along the way. Most were in school newspapers, and none were ever for pay. It was a hard profession to break into.
When I graduated, I fired off resumes for jobs in the computer field – I loved computer programming. Being from a small town, I sent resumes to several areas. The phone interviews would go fine until they learned I was in a wheelchair. Then, they would get quiet or back-pedal. I enquired about telecommuting, but the industry wasn’t ready for it then.
After nine frustrating months, my mom suggested putting an ad in the paper to install and setup accounting programs. I did, and worked for a land surveyor who needed me to run it for him, too. He hired Mom to help me do map inventory. I worked for about two years with him. Then, his workload slowed, and he took me down to part-time. Mom continued on with him - learning to do drafting and managing the office.
A friend of our boss needed a program to manage rentals. I wrote her a program, and someone at her office needed one to track ranches, so I did theirs, too. The money from those programs started my business in the backroom of the boss’s building in 1989.
The business was named Pegasus Software & Computer Shoppe, Inc. It took all of my effort and wit to keep it running for seventeen years. There were several booms and busts in the industry. Hired and let go several people because of them. Mom rejoined my dad and me for the last six years. (Dad came onboard in 1993 when he retired from teaching. He was the head repairman.)
In 2006, I became very ill. Spent two months in Albuquerque. Mom stayed with me. My dad ran the store. He visited me on weekends.
I’ve been home ever since trying to recuperate and manage a cough that I can’t quite get over. In 2007, we closed the business, and sold the building we were in. My folks were ready to retire, and I couldn’t run it with my situation.
Illness has a way of making career changes. I could be a couch potato and draw disability for the rest of my life, but I have always wanted to explore my poetic voice. (I’d started writing poetry again about eight years ago for friends. They encouraged me to compile a book, and in my spare time I had typed in the older poems.) Last fall, my cough let up enough for me to start getting serious about my book.
On days when the cough was better, I typed in poems and researched publishers. A friend recommended print-on-demand. I chose CreateSpace on Amazon.
Flights of Fancy – Volume 1 was completely done at the house. From design and layout to the artwork on the front cover, they are my handiwork. It was fun to put the book together. I was so excited when the proof arrived.
I am currently writing poetry for volume 2. I’m not sure when it will be out.
