Aneta's First Day At Work 30 Years Ago

This blog post was provided by Aneta during a face to face interview with her at Foothills Group Home in Boulder, Colorado, where Aneta lives. This is the first of a series of blog posts Aneta will be providing.

I moved to Boulder from Arvada about 30 years ago, and I moved into Carmel House. I didn’t know anybody and I was scared. Jim Graves (the Director of Carmel) was a nice guy and he helped me to be more comfortable. He helped me to make new friends.
During the day I went to the workshop (on Broadway and Iris in Boulder). I took a taxi, and that in itself was quite and accomplishment to get into the taxi cab. When the taxi showed up and they said “Are you ready for work?” you better be ready and have what you needed for the day. I learned how to take care of myself.

At the workshop, Bob and Stacy Lawhead were both there, and they made it fun to come to work. My first job was putting bike brakes together. Stacy said, “I know this will be hard to do, but I’d like you to try it anyway.” I was afraid I wouldn’t finish in time, but Stacy said, “You have all day to do it, so don’t be scared.” When asked how it turned out, Aneta pondered the question for about 20 seconds, then smiled and replied, “It turned out rather well.”