Mine was a charmed life, at least at first. There were six of us kids, with two parents who loved us and each other. I felt secure in the knowledge that all of our major needs would be met – although with four brothers who were hockey players and wrestlers, my sister and I had to stand up for ourselves and make sure that we got our fair share of the table scraps.
Athletics was a family priority, and we always knew that mom and dad were in our corner, cheering for us. Being an overachiever and having FOMO (fear of missing out), I chose figure skating, ski racing, singing, playing the flute and piano, and cheerleading.
Love for skiing and the mountains eventually drew me nearly 2,000 miles west – away from all my family in Rochester, NY to the great white unknown of the Colorado Rockies.
Initially I worked at a Young Life Camp in Buena Vista as property mgr and wrangler trainer, but the move was a definite shocker for me. I took this new-found freedom to the extreme – partying and staying up late at night.
Eventually, I moved over to Summit County and supervised the Copper Mountain Ski Patrol. Because of the fatal burial of one of our patrollers in an avalanche, I had the opportunity to develop ski patrol and search and rescue programs, where we utilized dogs to locate avalanche victims. I wrote a book about it, “Avalanche Hasty Search,” since many ski areas and search and rescue groups were interested in copying what we had done.
About this same time I met Dan Burnett – my friend and life partner. We were married in 1984 and found that the expansion of our family was not as easy as we had anticipated. Unless a person has actually gone through all the adoption classes and fertility procedures, it’s hard to appreciate the emotional and physical roller coaster rides involved in both ventures. But, we finally were able to enjoy the fruit of our labors (literally) when both Bethany and Rachel, “Beny” and “Ray”, were born. I was 38 and our beautiful daughters were just seven and a half months apart – one the fruit of adoption and the other of fertility.
We are triply blessed now with three grandsons (Jaxson, Noah, and Maverick) who all live within ten miles of our home.
Who could ask for anything more?
Patti Burnett 