I am really loving my marriage. Joshua and I are often fixing up our little house and yard. I have really found my life partner.

I need only three more accounting courses to finish my accounting diploma. I am looking forward to a bigger challenge in the accounting profession.

I am still the treasurer for the Riverbend Women's Shelter. The board has always worked well together. But it seems our meetings are shorter. Maybe I brought some of that TDG spirit to this board. Or maybe they taught me something to bring into the TDG. It's a good functional group that is running this non-profit society. Our clients really need that stability.

Yesterday, I got some news from my doctor. I can't wait to tell Joshua. But after tonight's TDG public meeting.

The TDG took more of my free time when I got elected to the executive committee of Northwest Riverbend—and later became its treasurer. Plus I was helping a TDG group get started in Southwest Riverbend.

Northwest Riverbend eventually merged with Northeast Riverbend to form North Riverbend. One of the fellows instrumental in that merger was an older African-American named Jerrod Jerimiah.

I worked with Jerrod to merge North Riverbend with Southwest Riverbend. That's where I really got to know him. Quite outspoken in small groups, but usually quiet in larger settings. For some reason, his neighborhood elected someone else after that merger. And I think he was pleased with that outcome. He was still a loyal TDGer, and I probably saw him a few times a year at TDG meetings or on the streets of our small town. We always had a good chat.

At one public TDG meeting, he said to me: "Thelma, there is someone I want you to meet."

He took me to table where a young African American fellow was sitting with a couple of white fellows: "Thelma, this is my son Joshua."

Joshua and I were married eight months later.