Joann wsu*

is honored with a Brick from Virginia Pallett.

Written by Joann in December, 1996:

In high school I dreamed of being like Jane Arden, the comic strip newspaper reporter. My mother convinced me I could do it. She dreamed of me as a university graduate. I did it--the first woman graduate in my family.

"Should I smoke cigarettes?" was the burning question of my life as a university sophomore and a sorority pledge. The popular girls did smoke. Their poised fingers and puffs of smoke seemed graceful and sophisticated. "Think for yourself, is it right for you?" is all my mother said. In the end, I decided it wasn't for me. I knew I'd never find the cigarettes and the matches in the same place at the same time.

"Think for yourself" and "you can do it" were my mother's constant admonitions as she eternally pushed and guided me though life decisions. Her words influenced my children who now influence their children. My mother was a guiding force in my life and the lives of many others.

April 2, 1999 (for Joann Kallail Kamas)