greywulf58

I am originally from Toledo, OH but my parents and I moved to Orlando, FL in 1956 because I was born with a septal heart defect and I would not have been able to survive the cold weather conditions of the Midwest for too many years beyond that. In 1963 I had open-heart surgery to repair the heart defect. I was the second pediatric patient to have open-heart surgery in North Carolina. My father worked for McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft at Cape Canaveral from 1956 until he retired in 1971. I literally grew up with the space program. I have met all of the original seven astronauts and have a letter from Virgil "Gus" Grissom that my mother had framed for me when I turned 50 in 2004. When my parents retired, we moved to the little town of Weaverville, NC and that is where (Asheville, NC area) I spent the better part of my adult life. I have been married three times, divorced twice and my third wife passed away quite suddenly in 2014. I have two daughters. My oldest lives in Rhode Island and my youngest lives in New Hampshire. In 2010, my late wife and I moved to Columbia, SC so that we could be closer to her mother and relatives. One day, my girlfriend and I will either move back to my mountains of WNC or return to her hometown in Portland, OR. I am retired from the nursing field, but I have also worked as a mechanic and CNC machinist. That is me in a nutshell.