Marjorie Mandley Wass

Here's a Mini-Bio- I am a widow (I hate that term) I lost my husband to colon cancer May 2002 after a 2 1/2 year battle. I have 4 children, (3 sons and 1 daughter) ages 49, 47, 43 and 41. My daughter is the second oldest. They have given me 16 grandchildren (13 are granddaughters, 3 are grandsons), quite an age range here. My oldest grandchild is 28 and my youngest is 7 months. Of course they are all adorable, perfect children, just like my kids (Big LOL here). I also have a 3 year old great-grandson. Christmas shopping is a year round process and I always have a stockpile of things hidden until Christmas or birthdays hit....which is often and constant.

I have also enjoyed country life all my adult life but right now all I have are 2 horses, a son, a daughter-in-law and their 11 children on the place, and of course my little black Pom-Shiht, (one of my granddaughter's name for his mixed breed) Ty and of course the outside cats and big dogs. When our kids were growing up we always had the horses, (my husband was a cowboy, yes a real one too...boots, spurs and latigo). Added to an ever changing number of horses, at different times you might find bottle fed calves, a cow or two, pigs, goats, donkey, tortoise, a Nevada mustang, and who could live without the goldfish, parakeets and mice or guinea pigs, hamsters lizards etc that kids and country seem to bring. We also had small gardens but my father-in-law was the best at growing a wonderful garden and we were spoiled by everything from corn to cantaloupe, artichokes to figs. Unbelievable! And I understand the zucchini thing, they develop a life of their own almost as bad as friendship bread/Herman.

I started out a stay-at home mom and ended up before retiring with 35 straight working years behind me, 7 years as bookkeeper/receptionist in a veterinary hospital and 28 years for Mariposa County in the Treasurer, Tax Collector, County Clerk and Registrar of Voter Department (one office, long on title and short on staff) retiring December 31, 2006 as Department Head, an elected position. Through all my working years, the last were the best. I LOVED being the boss and was good at it :-). But I did love both of my jobs but when decision time came, I had no doubts that I wanted retirement. However my retirement kind of took a wrong turn after just a few months and turned into a medical nightmare that I am still working my way through. So instead of the trip to the Bahamas or anywhere for that matter, I have had way too many hospital stays. True, it is covered by Medicare (ha ha) so I choose to think of it as an all expense paid vacation, free food and lodging for me, plus all that special attention, so what is to complain about. I always feel that things happen for a reason. The only reason I can think of that makes sense is I was meant to have my wings clipped before I went bouncing all over creation like I thought I was going to do. Places to go and things to do that when you work there is never enough time or money to fit in.