May 2007

My name is Cheri Smith formally known as Cheryl Lynn Chilton Smith. I was born in Boulder, Colorado on July 25, 1951 while my parents were attending the University there. I’ve always said that I attended college even before I was born (wish that made me an academic). My Mom, Kathryn Ward Chilton, grew up in Sioux Falls, SD, and has been a perpetual volunteer most of her life…my Dad, Mark Chilton, is a civil engineer and grew up in Missouri and the Texas panhandle. I have one sister, Carey Charyk, three years my junior, who lives in Spokane… and a brother, Ward Chilton—who is five years younger and resides in Reno. I was the typical bossy big sister…what a surprise, huh?

My Dad worked for the railroad when I was young, so we moved around lots…I actually lived in 17 places before I was five (including a box car in Gerlach)…but then we settled in Elko while I was in Kindergarten, so I was able to grow up in a very stable environment—where the village raised the child. I’ve had many of the same friends for over 50 years—attending school all 12 years with them. I feel very blessed to have been reared in a nice small community—where everyone looked after you (and the town’s slogan was ‘Cow Town, Now Town’.)

My family has always attended church and been extremely active—finding community and service to be very positive aspects of spiritual growth. The Presbyterian church in Elko was my second home—I knew where all the best hiding places were for all the games of ‘hide and seek’ we’d play as kids while our parents attended meetings or did stuff there—and the ministers always ended up being close family friends. Rev. Harold Van Zee was the senior pastor during most of my time in Elko, and you could never meet a nicer, more special person in the world. He was my ‘religious leader’ role model, so I grew up believing God brought you peace of heart and mind, and was always loving, kind, forgiving, and totally accepting. I have always felt blessed to have these positive feelings as a foundation to my spiritual faith.

I attended Sunday School all the time, and every week during the school year, I went to Tuesday School (an after school religious ed program) …and each summer, I went to Church Camp at Zephyr Point on Lake Tahoe. After that week, I would come home determined to be a minister when I grew up because I SO wanted to share my faith with others…so they could be as fulfilled and happy as I was. And this was at a Presbyterian camp—can you imagine how inspired I would have been if we’d been Baptists? Once I got to high school, I was active in Youth Group and ended up being the Vice Moderator of Youth Presbytery for the state of Nevada. My first trip to Sin City Las Vegas was to attend the gathering of all the Presbyterian youth from around the state. Isn’t that ironic?

I went to college at Montana State University in Bozeman, graduating with a BS in Elementary Education when I was 20. The single most influential and long reaching factor in my life during those years was my relationship with Doug. The first time I saw him (it was a blind date) we were heading to an Hawaiian themed sorority function in the middle of winter and he was wearing plaid Bermuda shorts, a brightly colored, flowered Hawaiian shirt, a Russian Cossack hat, a fuzzy heavy-duty winter coat, and great big mukluk boots. It was love at first sight!

On June 17th, Doug and I will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary…Wow! Time flies when you’re having fun! We have two wonderful sons, both born in Reno —Corbin Christopher, on January 1, 1975 and Ivan Ward, on April 21, 1978. Corbin lives and teaches in Doha, Qatar. Ivan just married Janelle a few months ago and they live in Spokane, WA with her five year old son, Cooper.

In the past, though I had part time jobs and spent countless hours volunteering, I looked at my most important ‘position’ as being Mom to our boys. The goal: rear them to be happy, healthy, caring, responsible, open-minded, altruistic, and to give them the desire to make the world a better place. So far…so good-- and now with that behind me—ha ha-- I am struggling to figure out what my life’s work should be. I feel I must have a special ‘calling’, but I haven’t heard it yet.

When I think of accomplishments or the most meaningful experiences of my life, my mind—like a camera lens—clicks on people. I see Felipe, the political prisoner/Cuban refugee that lived with us for over a year…and never learned English. I think of our ABC student, Aluko, for whom we acted as a host family during his four years of high school and is now our ‘son’ the doctor. I see Joetta, my inner city ‘little sister’, who was the only girl in her family to finish high school, get married and THEN have kids. I think of Charles, our UNR international student from Cameroon and Junji, our Japanese exchange student who introduced us to Ramen Noodles way before they were sold in the U.S., because he literally brought a suitcase of them with him when he came to live with us. Lastly, and very importantly—I’ll mention my ‘daughter’ Jennifer…who said she felt left out by not being mentioned here amongst my other ‘kids’. I certainly wouldn’t want her to feel rejected and dejected.

I hadn’t thought about this before, but I see now that my role as ‘parent’ extended to many besides our two boys—and those experiences have been some of the most rewarding…as well as the most challenging, in my life. I have traveled the world, owned a casino, trekked Nepal, lived in many places--including Japan, and driven a race car on the Las Vegas Speedway—but the experiences that have meant the most to me, have involved my relationships with people.

Having a personal relationship with God has always been important to me. I value the Quaker ‘work ethic’ when it comes to religion…nothing is spoon fed us. We each must put in time and effort to travel down our individual spiritual paths….and the more you invest, the more you get out of it. Truthfully, I miss parts of traditional worship services sometimes…like the music and inspirational readings—but overall, for me, group silence seems a much more conducive environment in which to enrich my spiritual life.