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Frances (Fisher) Hodges '61 .jpg)
| Wow, a summary of what I have done since, what was it, 1964? Here is the short version: From Kentucky, I moved to Goshen, Indiana and completed my BSN (nursing) at Goshen College in 1967. Jerry Cripe and I married and have two sons: Sydney Paul and Steven Clair. Both are married and have children of their own now. Sydney lives in Tulsa, OK and Steven lives in Gaston, OR, near me. | .jpg)
| Steven & Jacob
sons of Steve | Katie, daughter of Sydney | | We moved to Portland, Oregon for Jerry to continue school and unfortunately divorced. He moved back East and is remarried. I stayed in Oregon and remarried Gary Hodges and adopted his son, Mark, who is one year older than Sydney. Mark is also now married with three children and lives in Portland, OR. | | Career wise: I became a registered nurse and first worked as a staff, then assistant head nurse at a community hospital in Indiana. From there we moved to Nebraska where I got my first nursing education position which I held for 3 ˝ years until we moved to Oregon. | | Since I’ve been in the Portland, Oregon area (last 34 years) I have continued teaching nursing, at various nursing schools, the last position at Oregon Health Sciences University as assistant professor of Pediatric Nursing and Director of the Clinical Skills Program. Concurrent with teaching I have continued my education obtaining two master’s degrees (education and nursing) and am nearly through my PhD in Education, needing to complete the last 4 chapters of my dissertation yet to complete the degree. Because I value teachers who are up-to-date with the clinical skills of the profession, I have nearly always held some sort of clinical nursing job part-time in addition to teaching and continuing my education—and raising my family. | | My health took a challenging turn several years back which forced some career changes, at least for awhile. But, during that time God led me to an in-home nursing position for an elderly woman, who previously had been the director of a school of nursing where I taught for 10 years. She was a wonderful person to care for; and most exciting, she came to a real and personal faith during the first year I cared for her. It was such a joy to be part of her life. She finally needed more care than I could give in-home, so she was moved to a nursing home. I had the privilege of visiting her there every day (except 5) for the three years until her death. Lessons learned and memories cherished from those years are very close to my heart. | | Four years ago I bought a house in Gaston (about 20 miles out of Portland) to be near my son and grandsons, where I still live with my dog, Jewel, a German Shorthaired Pointer. She was a gift from God, and has been a real jewel, so her name fits her. |  | I have been quite active at Community of Christ Church in Hillsboro which we started as a mission plant from St Matthew Lutheran Church, the previous church where I was a member. In about 8 ˝ years we have grown to about 360. My main involvement has been in directing the Alpha program for non-churched people and newcomers, to introduce them to the Christian faith and beliefs. Alpha has been one of the most exciting, rewarding spiritual experiences I have been involved in, as it is part of an interdenominational International Program which started in England and has spread to many countries and reached many people for Christ. (Probably some of you are familiar with Alpha in your areas.) | Goals for the next year or so are to reap the joy of caring for my grandsons, complete my degree, maintain the level of health I have currently, perhaps develop some professional workshops to market, and continue to serve at Community of Christ Church. | God bless you all richly. Fran |
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