1961 GRADUATED

I had lived with a neighbor the summer before my senior year.

I discovered, because of changing schools so many times during

high school; I did not have enough credits to graduate from

Sandia High School in Albuquerque.

As you probably read, Mom and Deryl moved to Grants, New Mexico, because I had enough credits to graduate there.

When I left, our neighbor said to my mother "Gloria, will never

graduate from high school. "

Thank God she was wrong. After attending 14 schools in 12 years...I did graduate.

SEVENTEEN AND NO WAY OUT...

Al was my way out. He was my future. The end of the school year was near..

SENIOR PROM 1961

          A week before the Junior-Senior Prom I received a letter


 from Al. The engagement was off. I couldn’t eat…I didn’t want to live.

          A friend arranged a double date for the prom.  I posed for the

 picture in my long, pink-laced formal.  I smiled but my heart was

 breaking.
                                 **************
 

           It was time for graduation. Mom and Deryl wouldn’t go to

 Baccalaureate so I didn’t attend either.

           I received a telegram…

          Congratulations on your graduation…Good Luck…Al

          Salt in a wound.

It had been one of the hardest years of my life, but I had a high

 school diploma.  I didn’t know it was just the beginning of hard

 times and wrong decisions.

I felt so lost....