Ruth (Kristin)’s email address is: bakknutson@hotmail.com
March, 2014
What a surprise to hear from you. You are aging beautifully, by the way!
I will not be able to attend the festivities in May, but I hope that there is a good turn out. Give everyone my greetings.
My history in a nutshell…I am still working full time. I have been at Children’s Hospital of Orange County for almost 37 years now…all in the NICU…and I have loved it. I feel like I have grown up with NICU…I first got interested in this area when I was working in Arkansas as head nurse in the nursery. That was when regionalization and NICUs were first starting. From Arkansas, I moved to Colorado and worked in the NICU at University of Colorado Med Center. From there I moved to California . I have had some great experiences and my work has been very satisfying. All of my time has been spent in a high stress work environment until this past year when I moved to a lower stress, step down NICU area. I am considering retirement, hopefully by the end of this year.
Bo and I have been married since 1986 and we have a 23 year old daughter. I also have a 40 yr. old step son!…but no grandkids. Our daughter graduated from Chapman University last May and now works in Atlanta in film production. She loves it and we miss her but are happy that she is doing well. Stepson is also in the film industry and loves it.
I still do some artwork, love to read and spend a lot of time ending to our garden/yard. We have grapefruit, oranges, mandarin oranges, avocados, lemons, nectarine and passionfruit. Pruning and keeping everything healthy and harvested is always a big job. I also spend a lot of energy being my 97 yr. old mom’s advocate with her needs in her nursing home.
Bo and I are in the process of setting up (a non profit) Chin Venture Capital which is a way for all of us over here to help the Chins in Burma improve their economic lot. We want to provide microloans with low interest to help them get on their feet. We have started this project with our own money and as soon as we get our federal tax exempt status, we hope to raise money for this…so…you ll might hear from me again about this!
My brother and I hope to travel to Burma this October . Burma has been closed for so many years and just recently, they have finally been allowing foreigners to travel up to the Chin Hills. This will be my first time back to Burma since 1965!!!
I will be looking forward to hearing the news about everyone else. I keep in touch with Barb Johnson Barnes, but have lost touch with most everyone else. I am sure that you know that Linda Goetz passed away a long time ago. I haven’t hear from Ruth Ann Miller in ages. The last I knew, she lived in Aurora, Ill. after they returned home from Papua New Guinea.
Kristin Knutson (Ruth Johnson)