Jan Douglas Kelty
is honored with a Brick from Kathryn Nelson.
Dear Mom,
Knowing has always been important to you.
From our earliest years, we remember you always with books - big, fat books and weekly trips to the library. You didn't leisurely stroll through silly little romances. You sucked the life out of thick, important volumes. Your daughters' young eyes saw that learning and thinking and knowing was important. We imagined that these things would be expected of us as we became women, too.
Through our adolescence, you chose to know our lives, not dictate them. You probably learned more in those times than you ever wanted to, but you never shut us out. Our friends fond memories of those years, include you sitting at the kitchen table for coffee and conversation. We talked and listened. We shared our dreams, fears, opinions and observations. You dared to know much more than most girls' mothers.
You insisted upon and assisted us as we completed our degrees. Then you went back to school, to WSU. You needed to know that you, too, could graduate from college. You needed to know that you could complete the dream that marriage and motherhood interrupted.
As our lives continued, you discovered a need to know about domestic violence, substance abuse, divorce and children struggling to grow in those circumstances. As always, you read books, talked to us, talked to experts and others. You also took classes.
Soon you found that you needed to know about aging parents, nursing homes and dementia. You continue learning about all that as fast as researchers can publish.
And all the while, you've strived to know more and more about yourself as a parent, a wife, a daughter, a manager of finance, a woman. Always you are open to and searching for new knowledge, new experiences, new ways of thinking.
As your daughters we learned from you the need to know. The need to know how to take care of ourselves. The need to know about our world. You taught us to seek knowledge through reading, through experiencing life, through sharing with others. We learned that knowing involves thinking. You taught us that to think we must actively seek information, ideas and insights. In order to do that, you taught us to keep an open mind. You show us the importance of experiencing the world around us.
By honoring you with this brick, we also honor your quest to know. For our daughters and granddaughters, this brick set in a university campus serves as a permanent reminder of the legacy you have begun. You expect us all to know how to be competent, intelligent, caring women. The donation in your honor will help provide opportunities for others who understand that knowing is important.
Your daughters and their families,
Connie Wells and Kathryn Nelson
