*About Me…Dawn Ulmer
Come along on this journey through my life thus far
When I was in high school in sunny California in the 1960s, my Dad encouraged me to go on to college so that I’d have an education ‘in case anything happened to your husband’. Of course, at age 15, I had no intention of marrying soon but I listened to him anyway.
My Dad and Mother valued education, both of them attending night school back in the 1940s. They met in a bookkeeping class. Eventually, they married before my Dad went off to WWII and was gone for five years.
When I was born, my parents were thrilled, yet they made a few mistakes along the way. One such mistake was feeding me the wrong baby formula. I was days away from death due to starvation as I screamed night and day.
Since that is the time of life when children learn to trust, is it any wonder that I tend to be independent, not easily trusting?
I disliked going to school as I had difficulty reading and doing math. In those days, reading was taught by the sight method, memorizing words, not sounding out each letter to form a word. At night my Dad would say ‘sound it out’ and I didn’t have a clue about what he was talking. I don’t think I became a proficient reader until fifth grade. I won’t even mention the flashcards for multiplication, nor how I hated algebra and geometry.
Eventually, I adapted to being ‘imprisoned’ by the school year, missing the freedom of the out-of-doors I preferred.
Fast forward to my Dad’s dream for me coming true
In ‘those days, girls usually had the career choice of becoming a teacher or nurse. I chose to earn a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing and become a Registered Nurse.
Of utmost importance in my Life
Telling you about me wouldn’t be complete without sharing my spiritual journey and how I became a follower of Jesus and do so to this day!
Training begins
Before college began, I took a nurse aide class and loved it, getting a job in the local hospital. My career learning days had begun.
Fast forward again
As I completed college, I married and worked as an Admitting Nurse in the same hospital where I had begun my nursing career.
After a couple of years, my husband and I moved to Detroit, Michigan where we became a part of the Jesus Movement. Life was rich!
Our son was born and I thoroughly enjoyed having a little family of my own. Since he was the only child I thought I’d ever have, I enjoyed him thoroughly — sewing his clothes, reading books to him, and playing catch in the yard.
Fast forward a few years, we could be found in Kalamazoo, Michigan where we owned and operated an ambulance service. That was quite the adventure! I should write about that!
The ambulance company also did wheelchair van service. My son loved to help!
When he was five, my son was accidentally bitten on the face by our dog. To help pay for hospital and surgery expenses, I went to work as a Rehabilitation Nurse for an insurance company. (Yes, Dad, my nursing education came in handy.) I had a large territory but had plenty of time to drop my son off at school, see my patients in their homes, and be on time to pick him up after school. I enjoyed working but driving long distances in snowstorms was not my favorite. Thus, I decided to make a change!
My husband had developed a small booklet for brides and grooms with fun artwork and lists to do for the happy couple. I began selling advertising space to local businesses. What a surprise — I could SELL! My nursing education had morphed into advertising sales.
Little did I know but I was about to enter an entirely new and different career after that!
Using my profits from advertising sales, I purchased an in-home business — I called it Creations in Lace. For the next ten years, I would be designing and creating custom-made bridal veils and hats, seeing brides-to-be and their mothers in my home. Re-creating a bride’s mother’s headpiece and veil was a nail-biting challenge. I really enjoyed the in-home aspect of it all. I could make dinner for my family while stitching.
Fast forward ten years. When my son was 15, my daughter was born. What a delight — to have TWO children.
Since I had my hands full and would be homeschooling my daughter K-12, I sensed it was time to transition away from my home business. I found a buyer and was pleased with the new chapter unfolding.
Being a wife and mother kept me busy but I wanted to do MORE and be helpful for other mothers. Thus I created an in-print newsletter for moms entitled “Moms and Sidekicks”. I was the sole WRITER, distributor, and advertising salesperson. It was a small publication but I enjoyed writing it and meeting others in the community before Internet days arrived!
Since I was too busy, and always wanted to do more, I began researching and WRITING about time management. I had such difficulty keeping my life balanced and going at a sane pace. I read all I could, eventually WRITING articles for a women’s publication in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The topic? Time management!
Out of that research and my articles, I wrote my first book: ‘Balance for the Hurried Woman’.
When my daughter was 5, we moved to Scotts Mill Park as event planners and caretakers of the mill and 40 acres of trails, farmland, and pond.
My favorite activities were creating display gardens for the public to enjoy. Of course, volunteers at the park needed a newsletter so guess who WROTE that!
One of my dreams came true — owning sheep!
We lived at the park for 3 years until we moved farther into the countryside with our sheep. It was during those 8 years that I began WRITING devotionals. I called them ‘Reflections of God’s Glory’, sending them out via email from the local library’s computers.
I was devouring everything I could find out about writing. Eventually, I developed enough confidence to share further. Thus, I began submitting pieces — some were even published in ‘Daily Bread’ and Billy Graham’s ‘Decision’ magazine.
I took the writing skills I’d been using and started to present writers’ workshops. One workshop was especially popular — ‘How to Get Published’.
Another chapter of my life begins
My Dad’s caution came true as my husband of 35 years decided to leave home and I needed to join the workforce out in the world once again.
Having a teenage daughter still at home, I wanted to work locally so found a job as Office Manager of the small, local newspaper in my village. I think that having a degree helped me attain that job!
When it was time to move on from the newspaper, I found a job at the local library in hopes of becoming the Children’s Librarian. I stayed for a year, thoroughly enjoying every aspect of customer service and being a librarian. The Children’s Librarian’s job slot never fully opened so it was time to look for another job.
My son, who worked for a design company, created a job description of what was needed in the company regarding a Project Manager. It had my name ‘written all over it’ and I was hired! What an enjoyable career move that was…until it wasn’t and the business began to flounder due to poor business decisions on the part of the owner. It was time to move on once again.
Seventy-five resumes later and I was surprised that a banking institution was interested in hiring me for their call center. I went for the interview and was hired! I have a feeling that having that college degree helped me secure a position once again. (Thanks, Dad!)
What a difficult job it was! Call center work is grueling. I’ll write about that in the future.
Thankfully, I did so well that a job promotion was offered — I moved into Business Banking. What started as easier than the previous three years, taking 100 calls per day, the Business Banking training geared up so that the department would be able to handle ANY call that came into the bank. Soon I was again taking 100 calls per day but ‘handling’ larger sums of money.
Working so hard at work and in my sleep (I couldn’t ‘come down’ from the stressful days), I began to feel unwell. Seriously unwell.
I went to see my physician who failed to run a crucial test as I became sicker by the day.
Eventually, one night not knowing what else to do, I called an ambulance for transport to the hospital where it was discovered that I had SEPSIS —an infection was raging throughout my body. An undetected UTI was the cause. ( I need to write about that, too.)
After a couple of days, I was sent home on an antibiotic which did further damage — this time to the nerves in my entire body. I never was able to return to work. I was too ill even to be able to do my job from home!
Retired
Being retired now for 12 years, I can honestly say that I have ‘come home’.
Needless to say, this hurried woman has brought that hurried attribute right along with her. I’ve learned to quill, been doing some abstract acrylic painting, created two Facebook groups — Handcrafts Galore and Balance for the Hurried Woman, and, for two years, have been writing on Medium.
Recently my now-grown son encouraged me to assemble the devotionals I’d been writing for 20 years into book. That was no easy task! Do you know how many 365 is? (See the link at the end.)
This is long enough
I realized that the older one gets, the LONGER one’s About Me is.
Thank you for taking the time to read this! If you want to hear more from me, please SUBSCRIBE.
Available as an ebook, also.
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Alma Curry DR Rawson - The Possibilist Doris Rouse Ken Van Camp Mary Papas Sharon Hillam Jemimah Susie Winfield Haley K. Julie KingGood Lee Byrd Lu Skerdoo Rosa Diaz-Casal Nikita Rayne Johnson Leslie Flemons
✍ — Published by Dr. Gabriella Korosi, at Dancing Elephants Press. Click here for submission guidelines.
