Eulogy, Life Sketch, and Obituary written by Verna Lucille Bell I grew up on a farm being the youngest child. My sister, Barbara & I didn't hang out much due to she was 7 years older than l. My brother and I grew up as being Pete and repeat. Most of the time it was my brother thinking of the Ideas that got us into trouble or got our mom laughing so hard. A couple of examples were my brother sat in an ant hill then he started running I just had to try it; wrong thing to do. Mom was so angry but what helped her ease her anger was by spraying the garden hose on us. Mama always placed small cups of juice on the edge of the kitchen counter for us kids to drink Bill, my brother took a sip from the glass. He had a funny looking face then went to the sink to try to spit it out. I couldn't resist I took a sip of it as well and immediately ran to the sink as well to spit it out. Mama was laughing so hard until she finally told us that it was egg yolks we had drank. After my parents divorced, my brother and I hung out with each other whenever we could. He had his hot rods he was building. He would hang out with the hot rod friends and I was hanging out with the jocks playing volleyball and being a basketball manager for the girls team. My junior year, we took third place in state championship, volleyball. My senior year I had what my coach called "a knee blowout". My volleyball season was over however I still got to go to the games to give my teammates support. In the spring of my senior year my brother sold me his car. One evening I did an unsafe maneuver in my car which caught the attention of two walking Fort Collins, CO's Finest. College Ave in downtown Ft. Collins, CO was the hangout for the hot rods and friends. You see, the Fort Collins police recognized my car because of the right front fender was dented which I didn't do. After they looked over my license and registration and insurance they said, "So your Bill's little sister we're gonna keep an eye on you." Time went on, Bill joined the Air Force and I started working for Colorado State University. GO RAMS!!! I had taken some classes there as well. It sure was tiring; but I forced myself to hang in there due to I didn't want to be cleaning up after College students. During this time I was living with a man named John. We both love hot rods and motorcycles. We would hang out with our friends; well when I could unless homework and sleep needed my attention. My school counselor suggested I attend a junior college so I could get my freshmen/sophomore years done at pace that was more suitable for me. My first year at Ames community College in Greeley was awesome but the commuting between cities was tiring. My drinking/smoking Marijuana habits didn't help much either. John & I broke up. I moved to Greeley. I lost everything I had because I had quit working at CSU. I was bound determined I was going to at least get my AAS Degree in MidManagement. Which I did graduate in June 1989. My friend and roommate, Cindy & I moved to Ft. Collins because we started working at CSU. I was classified as a rehire. I spent 5 1/2 years prior working there. I gotten hurt; which, put me working 4 hours in the warehouse & 4 hours working as a custodian. My 6 months of recovery from lower back injury still wasn't healed to return to full time custodial work. So I was hired full time to work the AM shift in a convenient store. And I still worked part-time at CSU as a custodian. Somewhere during this time, I went into rehab to help me stop the drinking & drug addiction. I did what was expected of me while in rehab. Except; I had a hard time finding a sponsor. I did try to at least read the big book & attend meetings. My Mom had retired; she co-signed on a loan so she and I could get a 3 bedroom 2 bath 16' by 80' brand new trailer home. Bill, my brother had moved in. The trailer had a front living room with all window pane on the front end of the trailer. The holiday's lights and toys were so fun for our animals. I had 2 cats and Mom had a parakeet that loved to tease the cats. When the decorations started going up, my cat Spunks would lye in the space where the car racing track would be put. You can imagine why she would get excited about that spot. Bill, my brother was setting up the train that would go around the Christmas tree. I watched Spunks while she watched Bill until he straighten up his upper body. Spunks lunged over the train tap her feet at the train cars; knock them over and sit at a distance looking at Bill with a satisfying look on her face. I'm laughing so hard cause I knew she was going to do that. Bill just lowered his shoulders & head as if he was defeated. The convenient store job had offered me a management position which I loved; however, within 5 months, I was exhausted. My bosses knew I was exhausted; they gave me my 2 weeks paid vacation & 2 weeks of severance pay. Then they let me go. Mom & I were driving when we saw an ad on a CR England trailer. The next day I called them. The recruiter sent me an application and told me to study the State manual's semi truck section. I made it through CR England trucking school & my OTR training. I did it faster than most people did. The training in yard and over the road was usually 3 months. I got my own truck within 1 1/2 months. (Nice having a Dad who was a truck driver). For the most part, I enjoyed being a truck driver. I drove mostly in the lower 48 states. I also had driven in some parts of Canada. Mostly in the Providence of Ontario. Canada. I had worked for four different trucking companies. Being a little new at traveling while driving for CRE I sometimes would hold my restroom need. I had pulled into the fuel island at a truck stop in Dallas as usual, there was waiting lines for fuel. So I went into my sleeper birth to relieve my natural duty. I could hear 2 men talking on the CB & I am realizing they're talking about me. First driver says "where did Miss England go?" second driver says "l don't know." I'm still in my sleeper birth reaching for my mic and said, "l couldn't hold it any longer." I tell ya, some men truck drivers can be hilarious with their comments. I had quit CRE and started driving for ACT Transportation. The owner of ACT's Dad owned Flying J until his death in an airplane crash. Since driving for ACT naturally we fueled at Flying J Truck Stops. I'm in La Salle, IL, minding my own business playing a video game. The screen was off track a bit. A man comes up beside me then started making very inappropriate comments that just made me mad. So I did what he said but in an angry way, I hit the bottom of the screen with the palm of my hand. The screen cracked and fell to the floor. I still had my hand on the screen while staring at the man & getting up off the stool. I walked away going to find some place to wash the blood off my hand. The man says to the clerk, "she broke the game screen!" I told the clerk I am going to clean my hand and I'll be back. When I came out of the restroom, there stood a LA Salle police officer. The officer and I talked for a while. The officer went over to talk with the clerk. I took that moment to call my Safety Manager at the office. A few choice words was said by him then he said he would talk with Thad, the owner of the trucking company. The officer came back to me and said, " your boss is going to take care of the replacement of the video game. There are no charges towards you. You are free to go." As I'm walking to my truck, I said to myself, God loves me. Things were changing at ACT so I quit to go to work for Pride Transport. By this time, I knew I needed to open the door to Jesus. I was grateful he had shut down the spiritual world except His words and His love for me. 911 happened. We Pride drivers hauled a lot of Pharmaceuticals to the Eastern States and any thing else our fellow Americans needed. 3 weeks after 9-11, I got a load to deliver in Ontario, Canada. My 2 nieces were young at that time and they were scared for me. I reassured them that the Canadians are our friends. I was able to get in and out of Canada with ease except for the police dogs sure enjoyed sniffing around my Sleeper Birth area. Mr. Jacob, my cat would hiss at the dogs when I brought him up to the driver's window. The officers released me to go on my merry way. I had a load of Harley-Davidsons. There were multiple stops at Harley-Davidson retail stores a long the way from Pennsylvania to California. My last stop was in Sacramento. Talk about having the urge to soil my pants. As I was opening the trailer doors, there were 3 State police Cruisers turning into the back lot where I was. They could see I was a little nervous. They got out of the cars to approach me then eased their body language. One of them pointed at the bikes and said, "we are here for those." They all started laughing which made me laugh. The western states were not very nice to truck drivers. 55mph on open interstates caused me a lot of headaches. I couldn't control myself. There was a point where we truckers needed to slow down which twice I found out by red & blue flashing lights I missed that point. What's really embarrassing these stops were a year apart and the same Oregon State Trooper. This state trooper remembered me. On the road 1-80 In Nevada, there was a billboard that this message was on it. "DON'T MAKE ME HAVE TO COME DOWN THERE. As I continue to drive, I would look up occasionally to see if he was coming down. When I finally got back to the Pride yard in Salt Lake I quit. 2 major speeding tickets could result in losing my license. So, I moved back to Colorado hoping The American Trucker Association could help me with not losing my CDL. Which they did but not enough to return to trucking. I had to wait for a couple of years for at least one traffic violation to drop of my record. So I worked a couple years in a convenient store then worked a couple years as a school bus driver. During this time, I was grateful for my Mom to introduce me to her pastor and got me back into church. I had did volunteer work and attended some classes. All this alone time with Jesus along with a Christian Councilor, I was able to dig through layers of garbage that had caused me to be such a monster. My sister and were living together during this time. There were things needing fixing around the house so after 2 years driving school bus I was hired on with my 4th trucking company called Freedom Transportation In Ft. MORGAN. CO. The owner seemed nice with understanding that I hadn't driven truck in a while so he given me time to get back on track again. About 3 1/2 years go by; things are changing, making it hard on boss to stay afloat. Also, my Mom's health is deteriorating. So it was a benefit for both my boss and I for me to quit. I got my old job back with the school district to drive school bus again. This job benefitted me in a way that I could make a good living and still take care of my mom. 7 years go by and my mom passed away. I knew my Mom was really sick & hurting; it was a relief my Mom wasn't hurting anymore but it still gave me a broken heart experience losing my best friend & Mother. I wasn't doing very well at work with this local driving job I had. Since they didn't know me very well, they fired me. I had no reason for working local so I called my friend, Casey, to maybe get some references to work over the road somewhere. Casey offered me a job driving for my old boss Russ. Russ was able to workout some things that he had opened up another OTR business. It was a relief being back with the Garver family business. A year had passed by and I needed my right knee replaced. I spent some time with some of my family in Idaho and Oregon while healing. I had returned to work about 6 weeks later. As time went on, Russ was struggling again. He leased his 7 OTR drivers and his trucks to another trucking company. So now I was being dispatched to the East Coast and back to Colorado. COVID19 had begin. I'm still being dispatched to the East Coast and back to Colorado. The areas I was dispatched in the East was some of the HOT SPOTS of COVID19. Fortunately, the warehouses I went to had put in place safety procedures to help keep everyone safe. What I loved about one of the procedures was we drivers were not allowed inside the warehouses.