Doris Baker

Here I sit, starting to write my biography, and I have already had the privilege of reading other peoples and seeing pictures and actually connecting with people by e-mail. What A trip!!!

Most of you remember that I went steady with Jeff Glover from the age of 14 on. We got married July 24,1965. The following year, July 11^th my first son Kevin was born. Then the next year June 29^th 1967 Jeffrey Jr. was born, (YUP, the second child is the junior, I don’t like to do things by the book). Then July 31^st 1969 my daughter Teresa was born. My family was complete and I was done. Imagine, your whole family by the age of 22. We moved up to New Hampshire a few months before Jeffrey Jr. was born. We bought an old farmhouse and loved it up here. Life was pretty good. I loved being a stay at home mom, and that was all I ever thought of. Jeff worked many jobs to allow me to be home. I didn’t go out to work till all the children where in school.

My first job after the kids where in school, was a Homemaker, Home Health Aid. I enjoyed the job and the travel into different homes and providing services for many different types of people. I did injure my back while taking an older gentleman out for a walk in his wheel chair on a fall day. I ended up being laid up for about one year at that time.

After healing and getting back in the work force again, I went to work Managing a Senior Citizens center. I would coordinate meals on wheels and meals in the center. I also coordinated programs for the seniors to keep them busy and interested in life. It was so much fun. I worked at that job for over 8 years. It was a back injury that knocked me out of that job too. This time it was 8 months of being out of work.

During my time at that job, I was also going through some real hard times in my personal life. Many things that I had buried from my not too happy childhood, were surfacing and interfering with my life. I sought out help in counseling, and was trying to survive. It was at this point in my life that I was anorexic, and suicidal. My husband Jeff was a good man, but dealing with emotions was not one of his strengths. I guess you could say he was more like my father than my husband. Anyhow, it was in this time that I met my second husband Ernie Goodspeed, and my future best friend. He helped me through a really tough time, and I wouldn’t be alive today if it were not for him and the Grace of God.

Ernie and I got married Feb. 14 1987. He gave me books on how to be assertive. He will now jokingly say that it was his first mistake. I tried out all my new found skills on him. We enjoy each other’s company and have much in common. We have weathered a lot of storms and have come out with a stronger union for it. When you nearly loose some one it makes your priorities a bit different.

Ernie was injured in a van accident and has been disabled and living with pain since Jan. 1992. We have been through two serious neck surgeries, a heart attack following the second surgery, then a bypass 6 months later. Recently we have been dealing with cancer and he ended up with a mastectomy. Yes, men do get breast cancer. So beware all my fellow male classmates.

August of 1999 we hosted a couple who were the chaperones of a group of French students. We had the English teacher and her husband. They stayed with us for three weeks. I was nervous that I had said yes to my husband on that endeavor. But once they came and we spent time together, I hated to see them go. We laughed so much with them. They invited us to go to France and see them and stay in their home. What an offer. Ernie had been over there in the service. I had never left the states other than Canada. I was scared about the whole deal. But we did go and I had the vacation of my life. I have never had such a time, and may never again. It was special, being in their home and part of family gatherings and eating home cooking and surviving 4 hour meals complete with all sorts of wines. We spent a week in Southern France, with them and then went back to Paris for 4 days on our own. What memories, April in Paris was really something else!!!

I have been home with yet another back injury, this one only since Nov. 15. 2000. Hopefully I will get back to my present job soon. I am a certified Dental Assistant. I love what I do. I have been doing this for 13 years. I work for a husband and wife dentist team and they are great. It is a big modern office for this part of the country.

My children have all been married. I do not have any grandchildren. And may never have them. Two of my children don’t want them, and the one that does, has college loans and other priorities. So only time will tell.

I love doing craft projects and creating something really special and original. I have made some really special crazy quilts. I also like to write, and get inspired to do so at the strangest times. I find that people I share these writings with often find them helpful and uplifting. Maybe some day I will get published.

I found a big part of my healing from my childhood came after years of counseling. But the complete healing came when I found a relationship with God. People who knew me before may find that hard to believe... But with God all things are possible.

My husband and I do Christian Counseling out of the home. He had previously studied in the field of Pastoral counseling. We don’t charge for our services. We feel honored to be able to do it. I have found that all the really hard times and bad things that have happened to me have been used to give me a sensitivity to other people.

I let Jeff Kublin know that I had run into Mr. Blake, our English teacher here in Rumney , in church one Sunday morning. He remembered my brothers better than me. He is presently living in a home in Berlin, and I talked with him today. He is planning on sending an article that the local college had written on him in their local paper. He was excited to hear we would be interested in him.

I am really looking forward to the reunion, see you all there. Doris Baker Goodspeed.