Lori VermillionAssistant to the Dean
The world seemed very big to Lori Vermillion as she grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas. Her four brothers, three of them older, must have been a contributing factor. So, too, was an extended family that frequently surrounded her in the sounds and excitement of family at play. Farm and family were the known limits of her world even while attending a nearby Lutheran junior college, so for a long time the West and East coasts were more than distant -- they seemed light years away.
But the world began shrinking when Lori left college and moved to California. There she took up residence in Long Beach with her college roommate. As the roommate married and moved East, Lori moved on to jobs in Santa Ana and San Diego. Then in 1971, while visiting her friend in South Carolina, Lori's world expanded yet again when she met her future husband.
Steve had flown med-evac helicopters extensively in Vietnam and was a flight instructor in Savannah, Georgia at the time. After they married six months later, Steve and Lori explored new parts of the world as Steve continued his duty with the Army in Kentucky, Georgia, Kansas, and California before three-and-a-half years in Germany. That stint was followed by assignment to Ft. Lewis for four years before Steve retired.
The world may seem big once again now that she and Steve see less of it these days, but that's just fine for Lori. Her world is now pretty much defined by her son, Jason, who graduated from PLU for a time and will soon receive an education degree from Cal State Long Beach; her daughter, Jennifer; and Jennifer's husband and their four-month-old daughter, Melayna.
Lori is a very different person now for having traveled so much and extended the boundaries of her knowledge. These days she appreciates the smaller things in life even more -- like her new granddaughter, personal liberty, the opportunity to travel, and the joys of parenthood and grandparenting. Once again a close-knit family, small towns, and the sounds of a growing family at leisure form the boundaries of her world.
It is, indeed, a small world after all.