Paul Coffelt

I am amazed at my reaction and how I felt while looking through the list of names on this site. It wasn't long before I felt butterflies and then something completely new came over me as I read some of the bios already posted. Did anyone else have a similar experience? It was sort of like traveling back through time, and yet, not entirely so far away. Until experiencing this flood of memories today, I never realized or even considered the impact all of you, even those I didn't know so well, have had upon my life. Having admitted that, here are the highlights (and some of the lowlights) of my past twenty years since seeing and being with you at Los Alamos High School.

From 1988 to 1990 I served two years in central Florida as a full-time representative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon returning, I attended two years at Rick's College in Rexburg, Idaho. After the first year, I married an Idaho girl. Christina and I moved to Moscow, Idaho to finish school. By 1996, we had both graduated. In the fall of 1997, my younger brother Matthew (some of you knew him) died in a tragic household accident. In the fall of 1998, both my wife and I graduated again. She earned an M.S.ed. in Psychology and I earned an M.S. in Civil Engineering.

My first job out of college was in Eugene, Oregon. This job started only two months before Nora was born in 1998. Seven more months went by and then Nora's mother and I separated. What followed were four long, stupefying, and unbelievably painful years trying to work out a divorce agreement which ultimately ended in a trial proceeding. Nora remained in the custody of her mother who by then was living in Washington and I had reasonable visitation with Nora.

In the midst of the four year divorce process, I changed employment once, which put me on the professional track where I am today working at the City of Lynnwood in Washington- much closer to where Nora lives compared to Oregon.

In 2003, a year after moving to Lynnwood, I met Jill. We dated, then courted, then married in 2004. Up until then, she had been divorced for about four years living single with her daughter Kaitlyn. I absolutely adore Jill and love being a father to my girls. Like everyone else, our family is not without challenges, but compared to our previous struggling, we have a deeper bond and commitment one to another. By far the most significant element of this deeper bond is personal strivings to live by the teachings of Jesus.

Here's a little bit more about Jill and the girls. Jill comes from Arkansas where she learned to skin coons and fry catfish. She attended nursing school in Memphis, Tennessee before moving to Washington. For a number of years, she worked in adult intensive care treating patients with common and unimaginable ailments. When we get bored, I just have to mention a body part and a myriad of memories come to her mind about patients she took care of in ICU. It is the way people injured the part or parts and how it became life threatening that can be hysterical. Jill has an endless supply of entertaining real-life stories from the ICU.

Jill is not a big person, so moving adult sized patients by herself and sometimes in teams was beginning to take a toll on her body. In order to keep from becoming a patient herself, she downsized her patients starting about four years ago by working in the newborn ICU. Did I mention that I absolutely adore Jill?

Kaitlyn will be ten in July. She is easily the most obedient and reverent person her age that I know. Without fail, she helps us remember to say family prayers and ask for blessings on meals. Imagine a child that never talks back, never rolls eyes, always goes to bed when you tell her (and doesn't get up until morning), and only sometimes forgets to do chores or practice piano. That child is Kaitlyn. She is active in volleyball, likes to skateboard and bike, and loves to go camping.

Nora will be nine in August. This poor child is the spitting image of her father. Nora has math reasoning skills ahead of her age and is very quick observing things around her. She is not at all shy and usually jumps right in with groups of children and adults. For the past three years, she has been learning ballet, jazz, and hip-hop dance. Nora likes to show off her "moves", loves to camp, ride her bicycle, and stump her old man with questions like "Why do you say it's 4:30 when it's really 4:27?"

During the period when I was single, but not divorced, I kept up a website with photos of Nora and me. Here is the link for anyone that is interested: http://www.efn.org/~pcoffelt

No apologies for this site being outdated.

Considering the time I spend as a husband, father, member of the Church priesthood, and my job, there is little time for personal pursuits or hobbies. Things throughout the years that I've dabbled in are: antique motorcycle restoration, automotive engine restoration, metal fabrication, mandolin, elk hunting, ham radio, downhill skiing, building and selling custom PC's, genealogy, and cooking. Things I'd like to try are: speed boat racing, heli-skiing, geezer ice-hockey, earn an "extra" ham radio license, and write a book about the moon.

I will not be attending the reunion, but please feel free to drop me a note: pcoffelt@efn.org

Paul