After graduation, I went to Michigan State for a degree in retailing of clothing and textiles. My original dream was to be a department store buyer, but instead I worked for DuPont for 23 years as a buyer of research equipment before I retired in 2002.

I was also a residential Realtor for 20 years, a part time pursuit that came in handy especially when we had some thin financial times.

Mike Cook and I went to Michgan State together where we fell in love, were married and had two wonderful sons that have always made us so proud. Aaron is 39, a husband and father of 2 beautiful girls, Riley (5) and Reese (2), and is an architect as is his wife, Dena. Dr. Matthew is 37, an ER doc, and a husband and father of 2 of the cutest little boys -- Miles (3) and Shaw (1.5) and he and his wife, Donnelle (who is a trauma surgeon) are expecting a third baby next Spring. Both boys have required extensive re-training by their dynamic wives who manage to combine stressful careers and motherhood in the way long dreamed to be possible by the Womens Liberation movement. I on the other hand stayed home for several years to be with the boys until Mike and I separated and then went back to work. (I wrote my senior paper at MSU on Women's Liberation, which was just coming into focus in 1968/69, and decided then that the struggle would ultimately be power vs love. Maybe a more accurate description would have been power vs time.) Mike and I divorced in 1978, but have been able to keep a united heart in the well-being of our boys.

In 1979 I met and married John Radell, a wonderful and loving man who engaged all of us with his git 'er done approach to life...he is a real soulmate and helpmate. I gained a stepdaughter, Tammy, who was 11 when we met, and today is an amazing wife and mother who has pulled her family through some difficult times with prayer and hard work. After 12 years of not being able to have children, Tammy and her husband finally had a little boy, Wesley, our 5th grandchild and a constant joy. Being with our grands are the most precious times of our lives. I often think that our Father certainly saved the best for last. My goal is to always be available when the call to babysit comes.

And while I wait for the phone to ring, I work a few hours a week at a local Senior Center as a bookkeeper.

I have also been doing some pro-life work in to mission fields of Planned Parenthood and am the local Wilmington, Delaware coordinator of 40 Days for Life, a national vigil of prayer and fasting. (www.40daysforlife.com).

Life is good because God is good. I wish you blessings and happiness and can't wait to see you on Sept. 25th. We shared such a special time in our lives and there's some serious talkin' that needs to be done....

Pat (Wery) Radell

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