Sue Holley-Hagopian
Looking back in time to 1957 (such a long time ago), I think about how easy life was then. Who to go to parties with, what new outfit my mom could sew for me, how much I had to study to get good grades, etc.
Now life has come full circle – we are retired and I don’t have many worries, but in between these years there was so much to do. After high school graduation, I went to spend the summer in Springfield, MA and work for my uncle. There I met a charming, handsome young man who lived across the street from my uncle. We dated that summer and the next, but basically we had a long distance relationship. Letters and phone calls for two years were just not enough, so June 26, 1959 we were married in Enid.
As newlyweds, we moved into a lovely apartment at the University of MA where Gary, my husband, was still attending college. I worked for the next year doing bookkeeping at the Town Offices in Amherst, MA until August 1960 when our first child was born. Now I was a stay-at-home mom with daughter, Margo. Gary graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree and I received a PHT from the Engineering department. If you don’t know what PHT means… Putting Hubbie Through… I deserved it too! I’d typed so many papers that I knew all the engineering terms. Not just Gary’s papers, I made money typing for other engineers as well.
Graduation came in June 1962 and so did our second child, son Gregory. We moved to Wilbraham, MA and Gary went to work in the family business. In 1966 our third child, son Douglas arrived. The house we’d built was then getting small for our growing family so in 1969 we built a larger one and in 1970 we added a fourth child, son Eric. Now we had a full house.
Time flies when running errands for four children, entertaining for a successful husband, working for your town political organization while finding time for fun activities. I wanted to go back to work after our daughter went away to college and felt that the boys were old enough to be self-sufficient. The family business was short office staff and Gary persuaded me to work there, which I did for the next 10 years.
Now the kids are grown, married with children of their own, and we are retired. We enjoy playing with our old Jaguars and traveling. Our five grand children are a joy and they love to come to “Gram and Gramp” camp in the summer at our home on Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire. Recently we purchased a home on the West coast of Florida where we spend the winters. When spring comes we travel back to New Hampshire for a lovely summer and fall, but the Florida warmth beckons when it starts to get cold again.
Ahhh… life is good!
