Chapter 2: Final Notes

My senior year in school went better; I started making friends with the boys I was sitting next to in each of my classes--and it didn't hurt that I was a good student and in the national honor society.  friend Sue and I doubled to the homecoming dance and the senior prom.  My parents had sent me to a Cotillion dance club, and I had learned to hold my own on a dance floor.  My senior picture in the yearbook was very ugly, but by graduation I was happy with my dress, robe, and hair. 

But she wasn't out of the woods yet:

 However, the week after graduation Sue and I drove together to the Sears at a nearby mall that was hiring clerks for summer jobs.  She was hired, I was told they had no openings.

Ouch!

After the summer Sue went on to St. Mary's at Notre Dame.  Mom heads to MacMurray College to pursuit a future as a Director of Christian Education.  Little did she know the "wonderful/terrible" turns her life was about to take.

Chapter 2: Music as Therapy

Growing up, one of the few morning rituals I can remember is mom playing Weston Priory on the record player.  The needle would hit the vinyl and the ancient voices would sing us through the melodic meditations.  The music is a time capsule. 

From their website: One of the Psalms says, "Singing makes you happy!" The community of Benedictine monks at Weston Priory finds that not only does "singing make you happy," but singing also can express a whole way of life and, at the same time, can carry the message of that way of life.

In Chapter 2 mom begins her love affair with music: