Francis T. Nicholls High School
New Orleans, Louisiana
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Mary
Louise Olivier Thurman
I’ve had a couple of lives since Nicholls. The second one has been much happier. That one didn’t begin until 1982 when my daughter, Katie, and I met Mike Thurman. He was the tall, shy, red-haired biomedical technician that kept equipment in Willis-Knighton Medical Center’s neo-natal intensive care nursery humming along. We married in 1986. Every year around June 20, Katie calls him at work to tell him our anniversary is on June 28. Then she calls me at home to remind me. Life is good. I often tell people that I’ve been in Bossier City so long now that I’m one of them. It did, however, take a lot of getting used to. I had spent all of my life in south Louisiana, except for the combined four years I was in Arkansas and Mississippi trying to get back to south Louisiana. My earlier life had included a divorce and about seven years of newspaper reporting and photography. I loved it, but Katie was about 12 years old, and I thought I needed better hours, so I headed to northwest Louisiana where I had relatives. I took a job at Willis-Knighton in the community relations department. For several years I produced an employee newsletter every two weeks and a medical staff newsletter every month. I also did all the photography the hospital required. As the years went by I became manager of the department. It wasn’t nearly the fun that cutting and pasting and taking pictures was. I was relieved when the department was dismantled. I went home to my sewing machine where I remained until Mike brought home a computer. And here I am. Katie and her husband Chuck have given us two grandchildren. Christian turned 12 in December 2008. Laurel was 10 in April 2009. I once told my cousin that those kids seem to like Mike more than me. To which he replied, “We all do.” |
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| Mary can be
contacted at: mthurm @ bellsouth.net |
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