Today's Featured Biography

 
Marolynn Mineer Griffin

50 years, saying that out loud makes me sound ancient, I certainly don't feel that old! And summarizing 50 years into a few paragraphs is more daunting than trying to get an updated picture where I look halfway decent.

After Granite I attended the U of U, graduated and accepted a teaching position in Coos Bay, Oregon - beachcombing, rain, pounding waves, rain, Japanese fishing floats, rain, wild blackberries, more rain and everything so green. I loved it. After two years I returned to Utah and a master's degree at BYU. A special bonus was meeting my future husband Paul J. Griffin.

Paul and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple and moved to Huntington Beach, CA where Paul was employed by Proctor and Gamble making "Tide" and I found a job teaching at a middle school in Corona Del Mar. Seeking further education and following job opportunities we moved to the Portland, Oregon area where my daughter Carrie was born and then onto Richland, Washington. We lived in Richland for 10 years where we adopted my son Jonathan and then my son Michael made his appearance naturally 6 months later. (Try and explain the boys six month age difference to people in one sentence or less).

Leaving the beautiful Columbia River we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico (an entirely different climate and culture). By now the kids were all in school and after picking up a Library Endorsement I took a job as a school librarian first at the elementary level and was then able to open up a new middle school library where I worked until I retired 13 years later.

My husband Paul and I both retired (he as Santa Fe Country Budget Director) the summer of 2009 and decided to move closer to family, which was back to Utah. We found a home in American Fork and had great ideas and plans for our "retirement years". But things don't always work out the way we want or plan. Paul was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma Nov. 2010 and while undergoing his first chemotherapy treatment contracted a vicious fungal infection which took his life within a week. He died Dec. 31, 2010.

So life begins again with changes but so nice to have family and friends close by. I am active in Church, love to read and knit, have fun with the grandchildren and get out and do things as often as I can. I am looking forward to seeing many of you again after having lived out of state for the last 45 years.

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