Alaskan Forgetmenot

I was brought to Alaska by a man Herder Winklemen who worked on the Alaskan Railroad. We corresponded for about 6 months and he sent me a plane ticket to Alaska. I'd been living in Cosmopolis, Washington and had been attending Grays Harbor College and had worked hard to get my teacher's degree. I couldn't get anymore financial aid even though I'd attended the college four years and had over 200 college credits. I could have finished my degree by Satellite dish from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. When I went to Alaska I had a job in a daycare the first week I was there. Herder wasn't "attracted" to me because I wasn't as skinny as his blonde ex-wife. I found myself homeless within the first month I was in Alaska. I nicknamed myself the "Alaskan Forgetmenot" because I felt everyone had kind of forgotten me in Alaska. How I survived 14 long years in Alaska as a single woman was beyond me! But I think living in Alaska taught me to be a stronger and self-reliant person. While there I had to have two surgeries for cancer and stood out in -40 degree weather waiting for buses. I remember this one place I lived in was so cold that ice formed inside the windows.