The next five years Tisha continues to climb.
There was a time . . .
When twenty appeared.
The challenge, so great.
The past, we all feared.
We loved you so.
Your future was there.
The color shone forth
Gold like you hair.
Bryan and T decide to move to Lake Tahoe to focus on their education -- Bryan to be a fireman and Tisha to be a paralegal. This sounds like a song. How and why they decide to move to Tahoe is circumspect. Bryan wants to snow board and Tisha wants to start a career. Both start at Lake Tahoe Community College. T becomes the bread winner working as a bar maid on the Tahoe Queen paddle wheel boat while going to school.
Tisha is growing up, working hard, going to school, searching for a way to have a better life. She gets a job with Michael Laub Attorney at Law as a receptionist and changes schools to the University of Nevada, Reno where she completes her paralegal certification. We buy Tisha a new car, a used Jeep Wrangler. The Acura just can’t cut it in the snow of Lake Tahoe.
We fly Bryan and Tisha to Florida for a family vacation while I attend a conference in Boca Raton. This is a very nice week. One of our best since Tisha’s drug problems began. Dr. Randy Hawkins, a coworker with me at Sharp Healthcare, meets the family and plays golf with Bryan and I. Randy is a family man with two young girls like T and Brooke. He is also a highly respected neurologist and a friend.
Tisha comes home for Brooke’s high school graduation. This is a big event. One we never had with T. Tisha is so proud of Brooke for what she has done in high school – her grades, friends, soccer, her appointment to the Air Force Academy. What pretty girls we have!
Tisha becomes a paralegal for Michael and rapidly becomes the office manager assuming more and more responsibility. It is during this time that Tisha becomes “the princess.” A long story to be told later. Margie Schlosser sends T her “princess” necessities. From this point on, Nancy is now the Queen Mother to the Princess. Tisha meets Mark Graham but no major sparks -- although she does talk to Nancy about this new guy.
I schedule a family rafting trip down the Colorado River with the Moki Mak river running group (redo of Nancy and my 1973 river trip). Must cancel when I change jobs. We will do this later (it will never happen for Tisha).
Tisha and Bryan come home for Christmas, 1996. Big gathering at our house. The McCracken family and the Hansen family are all in attendance along with Brooke and Tisha. This will be the last time all our kids will be together for Christmas. Life is changing. But for one final Christmas, they are all home.
In early 1997, Tisha realizes that Bryan isn’t going to change and she must end this relationship – which she does. This is a painful decision and one that takes a great deal of courage. Tisha and Bryan have been supporting each other for the past five years. Tisha is concerned that if she breaks up with Bryan he will relapse. It is a tough decision. She makes it and it is right.
Tisha is now “on her own” and liking it. Cute little house, Tahoe friends, work that she loves -- Tisha’s life is moving in the right direction. During the summer of 1997, Nancy, Brooke and I vacation with the Embrees at the “Sunnyside” cabin on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. We meet that “Mark Graham guy” one evening at the cabin for dinner. Mark passes the first test. He is a nice guy with good friends. Tisha also becomes Nancy’s best friend during this year. They talk on the phone at least twice a day about anything and everything – OJ’s trial, Princess Di’s funeral, Clinton’s morality, T’s future, life in general.
Tisha comes back to the family enjoying our friends, the “Calvary Cares” group. She loves her sister and marvels at Brooke’s accomplishments. Tisha comes home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She loves the Hein’s Christmas party – singing around the piano, Rick’s readings, Stan’s music, the kids, the warmth of Christmas, and the comfort of being “home”.
She meets Nancy and I for Brooke’s Parents’ Weekend at USAFA in Colorado Springs. She is so impressed with the flyovers at the AFA football game and the grandeur of the USAFA campus. Pride in Brooke simply radiates from T.
Tisha recognizes how we raised her and continually expresses her love for us and our family. We are now seeing the child of twelve becoming the women we knew she could be. It is so good.
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