Sharon Ann Watson King

After graduation I went to Del Mar and then worked as a bookkeeper for oil companies. I had my son in 1970; in 1975, I went back to school at UTSA and got my Bachelor's and Master's degree there (psychology and history). For three years I worked in San Antonio as an assistant research scientist in the primatology and ethology lab of Southwest Foundation for Research and Education, observing the social behavior of baboons.

I then moved to Austin and went into a UT Austin doctoral program in British History for 4 years. I am ABD in that program (all but dissertation)--my husband at the time became seriously ill and I couldn't leave to go do research in Britain.

So,I was looking for a job that utilized my research and statistical skills and I found it at the Texas Department of Health, first as a statistician and then later as an epidemiologist. I retired in 2003 after having become the Manager of the HIV/STD Epidemiologic Monitoring Branch.

Since then I have gloried in being able to read as late as I want to, have done some political work, and have been to France and then recently to Britain. Also I had surgery (a craniotomy) for a silent aneurysm found utterly due to chance. Having never had major surgery previously it was quite a shock to my system, but I am fine now.

Addendum 5-2-2015: Well, let's see. Since I last wrote in 2009 the following has happened:

• In late 2003 I had inherited a large sum of money from my aunt. I had paid off my mortgage, bought a nice car, and paid off part of my son's mortgage plus made the trips to France and England. Unfortunately the rest was lost by early 2010 in the down sliding stocks and mutual funds situation resulting from the Great Recession. But because of the things like paying off my mortgage etc. it had left me in a better position than before 2003. Still it was rather depressing--I had gotten used to, for a short period of time, being able to play Lady Bountiful, contributing to charities etc, running semi-wild on internet purchases for my condo, and not worrying whether my bank balance was getting to close to zero. Alas, no more.

• I do not draw on Paint much anymore: I have a tremor in my hands (supposedly "benign" familiar tremor) that makes control difficult.

• The aneurysm I mentioned earlier was found by accident when I requested a reevaluation of my 16-year diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. They decided it was not MS but instead angiopathic leukoencephalopathy. Both are diseases of the white matter which insulates the nerves of the brain and spine. So my central nervous system is kind of like faulty wiring that doesn't transmit signals too efficiently from having holes in the rubber insulation on the wires. I am fairly weak; that has led to inactivity and--gulp--weight gain.

• I still read a lot; Kindle has been a boon since I can turn up the font size and get books immediately in the middle of the night. My vision was worsening but it was corrected by laser surgery and is okay now.

• Aside from reading way too much, I visit with my grandchildren, have people over for dinner, go out to eat with friends, watch too much cable news, and make a sort of hobby of finding things for my family, particularly for the grandkids, on the shopgoodwill.com auction site.

Oh I remember all my friends and how giddy we used to get at the end of the school year when summer vacation was nigh.

One time one group member was locked out of the girl's locker room in the gym in her underwear. Coach Bearden found her and came knocking loudly and angrily on the girl's locker room door. Those responsible including me faded into the background.

Another year when school was out, I had a party (no alcohol) during the day and ended up putting a bowl of bean dip on one group members head.

Write a book

All along I had the soul of a librarian

Britain