Cody Hughes: A short synopsis of a good life

I met a boy named Dick when I was 14. Keep that in mind. After graduating from PAHS, I went to Goucher College, then a college for women (who is a woman @ 17?). I met and married Roland, and when he graduated from Hopkins Medical School, we moved to Denver, where I had my first 2 sons, Adam and Eric. Denver to Boston to Dallas, where Jason was born. Then, our good fortune landed us in paradise, La Jolla California, where the boys and their mother grew up. I got my Masters Degree in Social Work and did a bunch of social work stuff, but my favorite was to work in Psychiatry as a therapist at the VA Hospital. Life changed with my (amicable) divorce and a call from Dick (“hi, this is a voice from your past...) You can guess the rest and it is a pretty common story...old relationships rekindled after many years. He and I have been married 20 years, and with him I inherited two other children, pretty well grown. So now our blended family includes 5 adult children, their spouses and a total of 9 grandchildren. All are in California or Texas, and we, alone, remain in Oklahoma.

These days I spend my time agitating in the community for numerous environmental causes. Oklahoma is a challenge where issues like recycling, water conservation, etc. are concerned, so I am busy and constantly energized. I write a newspaper column, do some speaking and organizing. There is so much to do!

I think I have lived a charmed life, so far, in spite of a bout with breast cancer in 1999 and ski accident requiring a new knee in 2006. I continue to look for opportunities to give back; after all, I was born in the U.S., not Darfur. How lucky can we be?