Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 32

Five alumni find joy and meaning as they serve in new ways after retiring from their first careers. by Jennifer Grant ’89 fe bracingthesecond halfof li #e m Truth is, many of us live in a status-update world. * “The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages,” according to the Twitter Help Center. 30     s p r i n g   2 0 1 3 Those of us who have incorporated social media into our lives will routinely tweet or post status updates to Facebook, allowing others a window into our thoughts or activities. Our updates may be as mundane as what’s for dinner, or as momentous as a baby’s first photos. #gottashare* But you won’t read news on Facebook or Twitter about the lives of the five alumni featured here. All five were raised—and reared their own families— before the advent of social media. After enjoying fruitful first careers, each of them has embarked on a second half of life dedicated to the humble service of God and others. Because none of these stories could be told in 140 characters or fewer (à la Twitter), we’ve decided to create biographical status updates about these five, so that all may see how the God whom they serve has worked, and continues to work with them and through them in their latest ventures. Dan ’68 and Judy Smith Norman ’69 #awitnessinaddis Dan and Judy Norman met at Wheaton in the mid ’60s when they both played in what was then called the “concert band.” They married in 1969 and later became the parents of two daughters and a son. Over the course of their marriage, they lived all over the U.S. as she worked as a part-time nurse and he attended graduate school, taught, and served in the U.S. Army. Then they settled in the state of Washington, where she worked in high-risk obstetrics and he worked as a flight control engineer for nearly 30 years. But this wasn’t their final move.