Mark Stoller and his wife, Andra, moved to Falcon with their family in 2007. Both are U.S. Air Force veterans and enjoy life with their daughters, extended family and adopted rescue dogs in Latigo. Mark is fortunate to have his wife and daughters as his muse for topics, people to meet and places to investigate.
I’ll start with good news from the home front.
As most of my longtime readers (rather presumptuous of me, I know) will recall, my daughter, Ava, has written multiple columns in my place while I was going through Respiratory Therapist school.
Well, now it’s time for Ava to graduate from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication and a minor in Leadership Studies.
The accolades don’t stop with graduation, because she will be recognized in two more ways.
First, she has a 4.0 grade-point average to graduate with the status of summa cum laude.
Second, in combination with her grade-point average, her faculty and staff have identified Ava as among the top 1% of graduating seniors to receive the university’s Academic Achievement Award, based on her communication skills, intellectual curiosity, analytical capabilities and academic creativity.
Ava has absolutely crushed her college experience, and I couldn’t be more proud.
Our youngest daughter, Gracie, is finishing out her first year of college at Arizona State University. Their mascot is the Sun Devil, so anytime you mention the school you have to put your thumb on your ring finger and with the other three fingers straight up say, “Forks up!”
Anyway, thanks to my parents creating 529 college funds for our girls, she will be able to study abroad in France this summer.
(Sidenote: I don’t remember college being this cool when I went to The Ohio State University over 30 years ago.)
As part of her international relations and political science double major, Gracie will take a course titled Culture, Cuisine and Health. Headquartered in the city of Strasbourg, this course is going to deep dive into the history, language, food and preservation of the culture of the region. There will be trips to museums and day trips throughout France, Switzerland and Germany to discover the history and making of wine, cheese, beer, sausage and bread.
Changing topics, there appears to be subtle signs of spring. It does not, however, mean we have passed the cold, flu, COVID and pneumonia season. I’m still working a metric butt ton of overtime to cover the flow of respiratory issues coming into the hospital.
I love what I do, and am equally blessed to have highly skilled and experienced nurses and medical technicians in the emergency department (where I spend a good deal of my time) and the floor nurses treating and healing patients to prepare them for discharge.
When I look around the departments and see who is working, I am content to know that whatever comes through the door, maybe even goes sideways, it doesn’t matter because we all have each others’ backs and we’re going to make it all good again. I’m a lucky man to be associated with such professionals.
Inherent to night shifts are occasions when we have the “dead of night.” The patients are asleep, nobody needs anything and we have time to chat among ourselves.
I learned from a nurse, who has worked at Penrose for 30 years, about the ghost on the eighth floor. Back in the day, the hospital allowed the gardener to live permanently in room 830 even after he was no longer able to garden anymore. He passed away in his room, but his spirit never left.
When the room was turned into a patient room again, patients were begging to be moved because a presence in the room was telling them to “Get out of my bed!”
Room 830 is now an office, but even therapy dogs won’t go in the room. They say there’s more abnormal activity in the basement, too. Ghost busting, anyone?
