Kathleen A. Gagne

Kathie Gagne died 4,704 days ago.

December 1st, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

Here’s a letter mom wrote me from her home in Gainesville, FL when I was living in Los Angeles. On the outside reverse of the envelope she wrote, “Feel Free to Write Back!” but – until it was far too late – I rarely took the time to actually write mom letters. I talked to her on the phone pretty much every single day of my life, and emailed and texted her even more frequently.

There’s something about a hand-written letter, though. There’s a little rush you get when you receive a piece of mail that isn’t a bill or junk. Mom knew that and knew how much I loved receiving her missives, even when they weren’t exactly positive or uplifting.

An Odd Cover Letter

December 1st, 2008 @ 8:59 am

One of the funny quirks of trying to memorialize mom’s life is that I have a plethora of cover letters she wrote, because those are one of the few types of documents she carefully saved on her computer. So while I long to find stories of her youth or of the time she spent raising my sister and me in Florida, I am instead stuck with dozens of pleas she wrote when trying to find a job in her sixties.

Here’s one she wrote when applying for a job at the VA, in which she included a sort of disjointed tale of my grandfather, Vincent Albanese:

December 1, 2008

Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center
Human Resources Department
Mr. Moses Campbell
1601 SW Archer Road
Gainesville, Florida 32608

Dear Mr. Moses,

Last week, I visited the Human Resources Department at Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center because I had heard that there were openings in the Human Resources Department.

At that time, I spoke with a gentleman who told me that, without VA preference, I would not be eligible for a position. He also stated that, since no veterans had applied, the department would be opening up the opportunity for those who were from the general public.

I am very interested in the position and am including a copy of my resume with this cover letter. In various positions throughout my working life, I have developed recruiting plans, conducted nearly 200 interviews, and hired nearly 150 persons.

I am very interested in working at Malcolm Randall, partly because my father was a combat decorated veteran from World War II. While a member of Merrill’s Marauders, he earned two purple hearts and one silver star. He seldom spoke of his time in the military; however, when he came home, he went to the enlistment office and had some fun with a colonel. Dad was in the army when the war broke out. The lieutenant who was at the front desk, asked my dad when he had signed up for the draft. My father said he had never signed up. The lieutenant was aghast! He ran into the Colonel’s office ready to slap my father with handcuffs. My father sat back down and waited for about half an hour.

When the Colonel came out, he asked why my father had not signed up for the draft. Needless to say, the lieutenant was red faced, especially when he had to answer the Colonel’s questions.

Sincerely,

Kathleen A. Gagne

Raining

November 30th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

At some point near the end of ’08 I asked mom to start writing me a letter every day. She had been living alone for a long time and I guess I just wanted her to exercise her brain a little; I was a little concerned about her mental health but mostly I was just hoping she’d stop being so sad about the death of her mother (Nana) and thought maybe writing would help a little.

Spoiler: It didn’t.

Mocha’s Meals

November 25th, 2008 @ 4:18 pm

Mocha (Mar ’07)

This is from a file named Mocha 2.doc, dated November 25, 2008, found on mom’s old computer hard drive. I’m not sure if it was a letter she wrote to a vet, or notes she made for someone who was going to watch Mocha for a few days, or something else altogether.

Mocha’s Meals:

Here is what I’m giving Mocha each day:

She is getting about 2/3 can per day of I/D and she is also getting about 1.5 cups a day of Nutro Max small kibbles.

I’m feeding her three times in the morning and three times at night.

——————————————————————————————–

I put warm water in her bowl, about ¼” deep.

I also put I/D in about ¼ of a can.

Last, I put in about ½ cup of the Nutro Max

I do this three times in the morning and three times at night.

——————————————————————————————–

I allow for several minutes between feedings so that she does not eat too much too fast.

I feel pretty sure that she is getting enough nutrients.

The Nutro Max says she should be getting at least 2.3 cups per day, but she gets less because of the I/D.

———————————————————————————————

She has not been throwing up anywhere near what she was doing before.

I have put her bowl on top of an upside-down milk box.

She also gets one doggy bone a day.

Can you tell me if this is an appropriate amount of food for a dog her size?

A Serious Issue

November 21st, 2008 @ 2:59 am

I found a Microsoft Word document named FCRR DEBACLE.doc on mom’s old computer. It’s dated November 18, 2008 but the file stamp is November 21, so I think she must have spent a few days writing it. I don’t know if she ever sent it, of course, but I think it’s safe to assume she did. Mom really believed in the power of writing.

November 18, 2008

Ms. Joan Longstreth
620 East University Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32601

Dear Joan,

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss a serious issue with you today.

My request for a meeting is based the fact that no one within the district advised me of my options at the time I was separated due to funding issues. (ie. a lack of funding for the third year of AmeriCorps.)

Everett Caudle, my supervisor, asked me to sign the Separation from Service form at least one month before the actual separation.

On July 31, I returned all of my keys to Everett. (It may have been a day or so later because I stayed to insure that all materials related to AmeriCorps were properly stored.)

At that time, I began to search for a new position, but, with the layoffs at UF and SBAC, it was pretty hard to find any positions in Gainesville. I looked online, in the newspapers, and spoke to long-time contacts.

In September, Donna Omer advised me that she was going to participate in a research program with FSU and the Florida Center for Reading Research. Since I had not found a viable position, I took Ann Bishop’s offer and continued to research available positions.

Unfortunately, that single move now puts me in a position wherein I might lose my home. If I had been provided with information at the time that Everett asked me to sign the Separation form, I would have known not to take the position with FCRR. Since my last official day was July 31, I would have been able to take money out of my investment funds on November 1, enough to pay my bills and have some left over.

As it stands currently, I am getting calls from my mortgage company and letters from other creditors.

It is untenable that persons who are separated from the district are not provided with clear information about retirement or separation options. It took me weeks to find out what I did not know, and, while teachers may have been given the information annually, I had no idea what the rules were until I found out that I lost my options.

I highly doubt that the district can do anything about this matter, and all of the fallout is on my head. I strongly recommend that every person who is retiring or let go obtain enough information to know exactly what their rights are pertaining to retirement or investment funds.

When I asked to take money out of my funds, I was advised that I can not take money out until March. If I had appropriate information in my hands when I left Everett’s office, I would have been able to obtain funds to cover my current bills, especially my mortgage.

Something should be done about this, especially as it relates to custodians, cafeteria workers, etc., some of whom might not understand the ramifications of the process.

Cordially,

Kathie Gagne

Diligently Looking

November 20th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

Towards the end of ’08 I was sending mom whatever extra money I could pretty regularly. She’d been unemployed for months by that point and was struggling to buy groceries, much less pay her mortgage. She sent me a greeting card shortly before Thanksgiving with this written inside.

Finances

November 15th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

Though we were a continent apart, Mom and Jenny and I frequently would chat via text message for entire Gator football games. She sent me this letter on a Saturday afternoon after we’d just watched #3 Florida crush #24 South Carolina 56-6 in Gainesville. She sealed the envelope with Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore stickers.

Angry with Him

November 13th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

The last four or five years of mom’s life were hard. She was out of work almost the entire time and quickly depleted her meager retirement fund. She was also really struggling with the death of her mother and living alone, thousands of miles away from her two children. I talked to her on the phone every single day, but it was never enough. At one point I asked her and my father to start writing me letters, hoping that they’d send me stories of their lives. I mostly just wanted mom to get in the habit of writing, which I knew always brought her some joy.

For a while she did a pretty good job of writing me, but they were almost always like this – rambling notes about her day and feelings of hopelessness. (My dad, for the record, has never managed to get in the habit of writing. I am hoping that he is secretly keeping a journal full of stories for me to find one day far in the future.)

Maybe I’ll Be Gorgeous

November 11th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

Mom sent me this shortly after my company moved into new offices. It was nearly impossible to read because she wrote with a light blue-inked pen on a card that was covered with bright pink and purple flowers with no room for a message.

Driving Distance

November 6th, 2008 @ 12:00 pm

Mom sent me a greeting card in early November of 2008 to thank me for some gift. At this point I cannot recall what that gift was, but it was probably either a new washing machine or television. There’s a cartoon dog on the front of the card sitting on a couch saying, “Thanks!” and inside is printed, “…I’m still sitting here thinking about what a Nice thing you did!”
On the back of the envelope she put a sticker with two smiling cartoon frogs – one a little larger than the other – that she captioned, “ME!” and, “YOU!”