1980 - 1984  
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In 1980, after 13 years together, Gene and I divorced.  It was a tough few years on all of us.  I made a second marriage which lasted only five years.  Through custody battles and cross country moves, we finally ended up back together, the kids and I in San Jose.  During the teenage years we grew apart and then back together. I had to learn for the first time in many years to support myself, the kids had to learn how to make do with less and help out more at home, and finally in 1986 I hit a mental, physical and emotional bottom and entered a program of recovery from alcohol and drugs.  At the time of this writing I have been clean and sober for over 12 years, and the kids have been a great source of support and encouragement for me.  We are closer now than ever.  We kind of grew up together through the 80's, and more than anything we finally learned to respect each other as people as well as parent and child, and learned to play together on camping trips, vacations, and many other outings.  In the past ten years all three of us have been married and divorced and are finally as of this writing, all in new healthier relationships.  We've come a long way, babies!  And the journey through the 80's, if nothing else, was exciting...

During my brief stint at being single and free, I got skinny, puffed up my afro, dressed up and learned to party!  Best friend Sally and I regularly made the rounds of the disco clubs, dancing the night away.  Bonny was living with me in Palo Alto and Bryce with his father in Half Moon Bay and we traded taking both kids on the weekends.  I had just re-entered the working world and was an executive secretary.

After yet one more custody fight, Bryce returned to live with Mom and Bonny and we moved in with a roommate and her three children.  A poor choice on my part that didn't work well for any of us.  Shortly after that I met and married my second husband and left town.  The kids went to their father and his new significant other, Gwen, who turned out to be a wonderful second mother to them.

I returned again to San Jose and started all over again, seeing the kids when I could.  I had a new friend who had a cabin near Yosemite and the kids and I had a wonderful weekend playing in the snow and trying to learn to ski.




      The day after this picture was taken the kids moved with their Dad and Gwen to New Jersey. (1984) Bonny returned to me in San Jose at the beginning of 1985 and Bryce rejoined us in July 1985.  I was living with a friend named Jerry at the time and we had a wonderful year of camping out once a month - something the kids and I had never done.  We belonged to a camping group that consisted of families and we went to a different place every month.




Paths on the journey down Family Lane

  Page  1 - For My Children - Christmas 1998
  Page  2 - The Willey Family - Kansas (My Mom's Family)
  Page  3 - The Bland Family - Virginia (My Dad's Family)
  Page  4 - 1947 - 1954 - Early Lolly - Key West
  Page  5 - 1954 - 1965 - Growing Up - Key West, Paris, Connecticut, Oklahoma
  Page  6 - 1968 - 1971 - Marriage & Babies - Kansas to New York
  Page  7 - 1971 - 1980 - California Years - Southern CA to the Bay Area
  Page  8 - 1980 - 1984 - Single Mom & Kids - Part I
  Page  9 - 1985 - 1987 - Single Mom & Kids - Part II
  Page 10 - 1987 - 1989 - Married Again - California to Tulsa
  Page 11 - 1990 - 1997 - Tulsa, Kansas and Both Kid's Weddings
  Page 12 - 1997 - Now - Kansas to Pennsylvania - A New Life


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