Granddaughter's biography

My granddaughter, Nichole, wrote the following biography for an assignment during her 9th grade year. It was selected for some kind of honor (not sure exactly what). We thought we would post it to the blog - so here goes:

The Biography of My Mom
By Nichole Miller

I chose to do this biography on my mother because she is the person I admire most. I don’t look up to any models or movie stars because my mom is down to earth and she is the most important person in my life. What I mean by down to earth is that she’s not like most moms she’s more like a best friend. She can act really silly at some times and very embarrassing, but she’s still really cool to me. Even though we also have are moments where we can’t stand each other I’ll always will love her.

My moms name is Michelle Anne Wiltsie and her maiden name is Michelle Anne Barclay. When I was born I was given the last name Miller because her two other kids’ last names were Miller and her last name was Miller at the time. She was born April 24, 1968. She was born in Tacoma, WA in the Madigan Army Hospital. She doesn’t think there was anything unusual about her birth.

My mom has four parents. Her biological mother’s name is Connie Mulholland and her husband, which is my moms step dad, name is Bob Mulholland. My mother’s biological fathers name is Mike Barclay and his wife, which is my moms step mom, name is Jan Barclay. My grandma Connie’s occupation is a computer programmer, my grandpa Bob’s occupation is a city transit driver and now after 20 years he is retired from the military as a reservist. My grandma Jan works at Tacoma Baptist School as a office personal, which is the same school my two other brothers go to (my moms other kids do not live with us). My papa Mike is a high school football coach and is retired from Civil Service in the planning and estimating, which is where he worked for the government and estimates how much building or something costs. The elementary school that my mom went to was Collins elementary in Tacoma, WA. She went to Ford Junior High for 7th and 8th grade in Parkland, WA and went to Kallis Junior High for 9th grade in Puyallup, WA. For high school she went to Rogers High and for 10th and part of 11th in Puyallup, WA. Then she went to Curtis Senior High for the rest of the 11th and 12th grade in University Place which is in Tacoma. The last year of school that she completed was one year at Knapp College of business. She studied bookkeeping and accounting.

The importance of schooling was very important in her family. School always came first and then extra curricular activities, which were a privilege. My mother and her family’s financial was not rich and nor poor but middle class. The person my mom most admired was her mom just like me. Back then moms had menial jobs. But her mom and my grandma decided to go back to school for computers to make something of herself and feel as it she could provide for her family in the future. When my mother was a teenager she thought mostly about boys and rock and roll and hanging out with her friends which is what I mostly think about right now.

Her first job was at Albertsons which I’m planning to apply for Safeway. She got paid $3.25 per hour. She had about a handful of friends and she’s only in contact with one since high school, my father. In 1988 she met my step dad which died in late 2002. After he died she had to learn to be independent and not to rely on anyone else. My mom had said her most important accomplishment was overcoming the death of her husband learning to survive with two teens.

Some goals my mother has now is going back to school to further her education to be able to provide for her family at age 36. My mom thinks the character trait that a person should have is honesty. The person she depends on most is herself because if she relied on others, then the family could fall apart. I asked her what she would want her gravestone to read and all she said is “I’m not thinking about death I’m just thinking about the next day.” What I would want to say is what a wonderful mother, friend, and wife she was. There you go, there’s my mom and her life. I hope you liked the biography about my mom.