The Where I Live series aims to showcase our diverse city and region by spotlighting its many vibrant neighborhoods. Each week a local resident invites us over and lets us in on what makes their neighborhood special. Have we been to your neighborhood yet? Get in touch to share your story. If your story is selected and published, you will receive a $250 stipend.
I was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and moved to San Antonio in 1967 when my Air Force father was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base. While my father had many temporary duty assignments over the years, my mother, sister and I stayed behind and lived on base for 13 years.
Some of my best memories are from growing up on the base. I attended nursery school all the way through high school there, graduating in 1983. I was in the high school marching band and made many lifelong friends. The military community was all I knew, and I absolutely loved our unique “family.”
In 1979, my father bought a home built in Universal City and we moved off base. At the time, it felt like the most traumatic thing to happen in my life, as I had only known base housing. But the transition was easy, as we lived in a military community and had several classmates live in the area. My parents lived together in their house until my father’s death in 2014, and my mother continues to live there today. She is 85 years old.
After graduating from Randolph High School, I attended Southwest Texas State University and got two bachelor’s degrees, one in psychology and one in social work. I then moved back to San Antonio where I started my social work career, first with Child Protective Services, then Judson Independent School District and finally with the military.
Lots of life happened during that time. I got married, had two children, got divorced and went back for my master’s degree. I was able to buy a house close to my parents and raise my children within the same school district where I worked.
In 2015, my life took an unexpected and fabulous turn. After 35 years, I met up with my childhood crush, a fellow Ro-Hawk and drummer of the high school band. Six weeks later, I became his wife.
After we got married, we lived in the Medical Center for a few years but worried because my mother was living alone. Being very independent, she would not even think about moving in with us or having us move in with her.
Then, as if by some sort of miracle, my parents’ neighbors and lifelong military friends put their house up for sale. We had to buy it.
Much of the neighborhood is just like I remember it, with a tight-knit military community where everyone knows each other and looks out for their neighbors. One of my neighbors has been here since I was in high school and has seen my kids grow up. Now he gets to see my grandkids.
We have two new neighborhood parks where I like to take my grandkids when they come visit, and they have come to love this neighborhood and being part of this Universal City community, too.
In 2020, I was able to transfer my job to Randolph Air Force Base after working at Fort Sam Houston for nine years. I never could have imagined that I would be working for the military at the base where it all started for me, living in my childhood neighborhood, in my classmate’s family home, being my mother’s neighbor and living among neighbors who watched me grow up.
Life has come full circle for me, living in my childhood neighborhood among my military family. I’d like to think that my dad is looking down from heaven getting a kick out of how my life has played out, living in the path he helped create.
