Lorna LEEKLEY (Kaluzny)

Lorna's 2021 Autobiography

My parents moved from Westport to Wisconsin while I was at college and I have never been back, so I feel very far removed from our years at Staples. I was MIA at the 50th Reunion, but am happy to have been “found” recently by the Reunion Search Team. Since then I have been frantically studying my 1961 Yearbook to try to refresh my faded memories. A lot has happened in the intervening years.

After graduation, I attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio. I majored in Biology, but balanced my heavy science curriculum with English and Psychology. More importantly, I came out of my shell, made some wonderful friends, actively participated in dorm council and freshman advisor roles, and was elected to campus office in my senior year. Those experiences provided me with confidence, leadership skills and a whole new outlook on life. After that, I went to the University of Michigan for my Physical Therapy Certificate where I enjoyed the Big 10 excitement of Ann Arbor for a year.

My first job was in Chapel Hill, N.C. where I met my husband, Dick. He had just returned from the Peace Corp (Malawi, Africa) and was getting a Masters at UNC before heading home to Wisconsin for a Ph.D program in Economics at UW. We decided to simplify things by getting married before the Fall term started and, after a shockingly short courtship, found ourselves in Madison 3 days after the wedding.

In Madison, I worked in a 17-bed hospital-based rehab unit treating spinal cord, stroke, and serious rehab patients some of whom were teens and young adults. We saw them twice a day for weeks and got to see them learn to accept and succeed in their new circumstances. It was both physically and emotionally challenging, but probably the most rewarding work I have ever done.

In 1968-72 the UW campus was a hotbed of anti-Vietnam war resistance with National Guard troops on campus, teach-ins, and demonstrations. My politics had already left my conservative family behind, but they must have worried as they watched the nightly news. In fact, it was intense, but not scary and it did not consume our life. Since the football team had not won a game in three years, we became hockey fans and went to all the games. We took off the summer between Dick’s course work and his dissertation, bought a Volvo station wagon in Sweden, and camped through Scandinavia for 13 weeks. We had, and lost, a baby girl in one horrible day due to a Beta strep infection. We experienced ups and downs over four years, including windchills of -50 degrees below zero, but we loved Madison.

I could gladly forget our next three years in Gary, Indiana except that we acquired a 4 y.o. Irish Setter (she came with the house) and adopted our daughter, Amy! In the ultimate irony, Gary also turned out to be our ticket to Princeton, N.J. Dick was collecting data in Gary for the Negative Income Tax Experiment, and when the analysis was awarded to a research firm in Princeton, he was hired to assist with it.

We have now been in Princeton for 46 years. We arrived with that well-traveled Volvo station wagon, a 5 month old infant, a traumatized Irish setter, and a mortgage 3 1/2 times bigger than the one in Gary. I stayed home with Amy and then Gretchen who was born 2 years later. I was active and eventually chairman of the board of Cherry Hill Nursery School, part of an informal play group of 18 month olds, Chairman of the T-shirt sales at Littlebrook Elementary. Etc, etc. etc. Finally, in self defense, I went back to work! I was fortunate to be able to start part-time.

The Medical Center at Princeton has many Physical Therapy sites and specialties, -Inpatient, Outpatient, Rehab, Homecare, Pediatrics. I worked in all but Pediatrics, but was most involved as Supervisor of the Inpatient PT Unit. I did patient care, but also had administrative duties and as such I became involved with the hospital’s changeover to computer documentation. Because they so dominate every aspect of our lives now, it is hard to remember a time before computers, but I will never forget the day it all went live. Much to my daughters’ amusement I became the “computer expert” and took on PT staff education and mentoring in the new technology. As they say, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”.

Dick and I were lucky to be able to stay in Princeton through a couple of job changes. When research money dried up, he commuted for three years to work for the NYC Office of Management and Budget. He was gone early and home late, necessitating the purchase of our first Microwave. Eventually he was hired by the State of New Jersey to be Director of the Office of Revenue and Economic Analysis. He loved his job and retired after 22 years of commuting by car to Trenton.

I have been retired for 15 years now and have never looked back. I became involved with Literacy Volunteers for a while and continue to see one of my students who is now a good friend. I practice Yoga with a great group of senior women 2-3 times a week, now on Zoom. I love to read and belong to a small book club, hopefully to resume after COVID. Until they closed, I read to kindergartners as a part of the GrandPals program in the Public Schools.

Since family is spread out, we spend time traveling. My Mother lived to be 96 and stayed in her home in Appleton until the week she died. I traveled there many times to see her and help with her care. Amy lives in San Antonio, TX and has 2 daughters, Emma and Sara, who are now teens. We also acquired an active young grandson, Cade, with Amy's marriage to Clinton. Gretchen lives in Chicago and is happily single. We love visiting them, and they come home for Christmas, but the big event is the week in July when we all meet in Northern Wisconsin at the log cabin my parents bought in 1964. The cabin is very small, and now that the kids are grown we are bursting at the seams, but it has been such a part of summer for all of the girls (and now Cade, too), that we somehow make it work. Big Lake is a great place for paddle boarding, kayaking, swimming in the day and board games, puzzles, and reading any time. Last year was the first year we couldn’t go, so we have our fingers crossed for this year.

Other travel has been enriched by an unexpected group of new friends. Dick’s Malawi Peace Corp group suddenly rediscovered itself after 50 years and has been meeting every 2 years or so to travel someplace and enjoy each other’s company. It’s an incredibly interesting and compatible group which now, of course, includes wives who have been hearing about Malawi for decades. So far we have met in Palm Beach, Luca Italy, Sonoma, and Sarasota. Portland is in August, COVID permitting. We have also taken a couple of Viking river cruises that we really enjoyed.

As for the last year, we are doing fine. We miss seeing our family, but have adjusted to being at home and are compensating with Zoom and more frequent phone calls. Dick is a gardener and looking forward to Spring. I have joined ancestry.com and discovered my connection to the Revolutionary War. Thankfully, we are both readers. Currently we are impatiently awaiting our vaccines and anticipating a cautious return to life by summer.