My husband Jerry and I live in Hilshire Village just off I-10 in a home we built in 1975. It is 5.5 miles from each of our offices. Jerry works in the Heights as President of Taft Broadcasting LLC and I work just past Sam Houston Toll Road on I-10 as the Executive Director of Caring Adoptions, a child-placing agency licensed by Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
After graduation from Milby I moved to Waco and attended Baylor University where I received a BA in education and journalism. While at Baylor I worked on the Baylor Lariat and was the Assistant Editor my senior year.
Upon graduation in 1964, I was not yet ready for prime time and panicked at the thought of being in charge of a class room or working on a newspaper in some small town far away from home.
So I moved far away to Louisville, KY and enrolled in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I rationalized I’d be a “religious journalist” and seminary was the next logical step to take.
I chose SBTS because of its location. My father was from Breckinridge County, KY and I had always loved our visits there and decided I wanted to be close enough to my KY relatives to get to know them.
Seminary was a time of introspection and self awareness and for developing lasting relationships. Graduation day in January, 1967 was very meaningful to my father who had received education through the 8th grade. I was the first of the Webb grandchildren to receive a college degree and a master’s degree.
Graduation meant it was now definitely time to make decisions about careers and the future. I flew to Nashville to interview with the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for a position on a youth magazine. How close to Mecca could a Baptist girl get?
While mulling over my offer and other options in my hotel room that night, the phone rang and it was Bill Hartman, publisher of several Texas weekly newspapers and the former editor of the Baylor Lariat under whom I had worked. He asked that I not make a decision until I could return home and talk to him about a position on one of his weeklies.
My other consideration was for the young man from my home church in Houston who had gone off to Stephen F. Austin University to work on a business degree. We had dated casually since high school and I decided if I was living in Nashville, my chances of getting to know him better wouldn’t happen.
So, I accepted a job as the Associate Editor of the LaPorte Bayshore Sun in LaPorte, Texas. My salary was laughable, but rent was reasonable and I had relatives in both LaPorte and Seabrook who were always inviting me for meals.
Jerry, who is a graduate of Austin High School, had transferred to University of Houston and graduate with that business degree and had become a Certified Public Accountant. It took him five months to admit that I had a place in his future and we were married August of 1967 in the church where we had first met as 10 year olds in Sunday School.
My parents died 100 days apart in 1996 and my sister, Betty Sue Webb Gooch, who graduated from Milby in January of 1957, lives in Knoxville, TN. She’s a retired nurse.
We have three children who we adopted from the Homes of St. Mark in Houston. Our son was 10 days old; oldest daughter was 7 weeks old; and youngest daughter was 7 months.
Patrick is a project manager for a steel manufacturing company and lives with his wife Rebecca not too far from us in Spring Branch. We love sharing meals and activities with them. Rebecca is a lovable Yankee from Millis, MA who works in Marketing for an energy company.
Kelli is a dance instructor in the Grapevine/Colleyville Independent School District. Her dance team, the Panteras, were in a competition in New York City last month and I was there “chaperoning” as usual. When I had lunch with the Milby girls last month, I told Mary Frances Shepherd that I was still doing drill team. Kelli has been dancing since she was three and was assistant captain of the Memorial Markettes; captain of the TCU dance team and is now director of the 60 member Pantera team in Colleyville, TX.
Kelli married Michael Woodruff of Fort Worth one year after college graduation.
Suzy, our youngest daughter is profoundly deaf and has been since birth. We knew nothing about deafness then, but have learned a lot through the years. She is currently working on a degree from Gallaudet University for the Deaf in Washington, D.C. She is a delightful redhead with a feisty spirit to match.
Our involvement with adoptions began with their placements and we’ve stayed involved in some phase since the early 70s when our son arrived.
Just shortly before my 50th birthday, the founding director of the adoption agency died of a heart attack and I was asked by the board to step in and close down the agency within 12 months. That was 18 years and over 800 families ago and we are still going strong.
Jerry has been treasurer since its inception so someone is usually involved in some phase of the process 24/7. We have finally grown large enough that we have additional staff and I’m not traipsing out to meet birthmothers in the middle of the night. The young staff members get to do that.
Some of my hobbies have changed and some remain the same. We are now Methodists and I am active in the United Methodist Women, an international organization within the church that works to improve the plight of women, youth, and children around the world.
That has always been my motivation in both my volunteer life and my professional life. I am now a Licensed Child-Placing Professional and enjoy all aspects of “finding families for children”.
My only other new hobby is interpreting music for the Contemporary Worship Service at Chapelwood United Methodist Church in the Memorial area about two Sundays a month. Besides helping keep the interpreting program going, it keeps me in “finger shape” for when our daughter is home for a visit.
Travels: Early on while developing an adoption program in Romania, I was fortunate enough to travel frequently to that country and work with an orphanage about two hours from the capital. After the first visit, it is easy to focus on finding families for orphanage children.
When elementary age, our children loved to spend family vacations in Bandera at a dude ranch. Jerry and I enjoy taking cruises. Several years ago we took a learning vacation to Germany with our church and still have fond memories of a cruise to Alaska with a group of friends. Last Thanksgiving the whole crew met in Washington, D. C. to tour the nation’s capital with Suzy. It is hard to believe that they are all adults now.
Neither one of us feel inclined to retire even though some days are physically hard to complete.
I am looking forward to renewing acquaintances at the reunion and still have a hard time thinking it is our 50th.
Pat (Webb) Bridges
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WOW, Pat your life has been very rewarding I would say. You have certaintly done a lot of positive things to be so proud of. I can not even imagine how wonderful it is to see a child place in a permanent home, how rewarding to see happiness like that.
I really enjoyed visiting with you at the luncheon and look forward to seeing you at the reunion and future luncheons.
Keep up the good work that you are doing.
Gladys Payne Bohac
Posted by: Gladys Payne Bohac | April 08, 2010 at 08:55 PM
Would have signed to you had I known you would understand me, though I am rusty. First job out of UT was editor of publications at the Texas School for the Deaf. Cool that your daughter got into Gallaudet.
Posted by: Laura Burns | April 20, 2010 at 03:43 PM