In my Junior year at Enfield High school I was suspended for a year, not a week or 2 weeks not even a month, but a whole year. There was no one to fight for me. My foster parents never came to my side. They just figured I was a bad apple. So I sat around and did all the mindless chores they could find that needed doing. I couldn’t even get a job because I was too young. I did go back to school with the biggest chip on my shoulder. It really was more like rock, and I felt cold as that rock. I graduated in 1965.
Whenever any one would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would quickly respond . “I want to be a nurse just like Clara Barton”. I loved the caps, uniforms ,stockings and shoes. All in white, so clean, so good, caring for the sick and dying was just the drama for me. The thought of it made me feel I could do some good, show those other good people that I was somebody. That dream ended the day I was thrown out of school.
Being a lone wolf, with strong pointed fangs I hunted for something that would fuel that fire in me again. I became a nurses aide. It had the costume I was looking for to play this part at this moment in time. I worked in a nursing home and I loved the job.