May 1998
Volume 25, Number 4
News from Retired Member
Fran Waranius
I have been retired now nearly 5 years. That doesn't mean I have not been busy. In fact I am really "working" more than ever before. Two years ago I started a chapter/support group for patients with scleroderma. We are affiliated with the Scleroderma Foundation in Danvers, MA. We have regular meetings usually with a medical professional so that we can gain some insight into this unusual disease. It can be very frightening to receive a diagnosis of a disease that the textbooks define as "usually fatal in 3 to 5 years." That is not always the case thankfully (I was diagnosed 14 years ago) but helping patients and their families to come to terms with the imposed limitations is a very needed ministry. Well, our chapter has grown from a mailing list of about 100 to nearly 500. I published a 12-page newsletter 6 times a year, and this year our Bluebonnet Chapter will host the annual meeting in July at the Doubletree Post Oak Hotel. We are expecting about 600 for this three day event. So when I am not pounding the computer doing publicity, newsletters, letters to patients, or trying to get funding, speakers, etc., I am usually talking on the phone counseling. I love it!
Bill and I are both enjoying retirement. We have done some traveling and have wound up sharing a condo with a friend in Oak Harbor Washington. It is on an island off the coast across the sound from Seattle. A quiet town that still operates as though it was 1950. NICE change from big city. We try to spend some time there, to regain sanity, about three times a year. Bill is doing some consulting as a petroleum laboratory auditor for the EPA. Usually about 4-5 days a month with some travel involved. It keeps him active (and occasionally out of my hair, HA).
I must say that I do miss at times the wonderful associates I met and learned to know through PAM but I really don't miss the rat race. It's kind of nice to be sitting here, looking at my cold backyard with the azaleas wondering if they should bloom or not, drinking a cup of coffee, in my nightgown!
Regards to you and all my old friends.
Fran Waranius, retired PAM member
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Created by: Laurel Kristick, May 1, 1998
Modified by: Laurel Kristick, May 1, 1998