The speech-language pathology (SLP) spring cohort of 1997 returned to TCU to celebrate their 25-year reunion. 90 percent of the class reunited with some of their former professors, Lynn Flahive, Jennifer Watson, Ph.D., and Irmgard Payne, MS ’94, to reminisce.
Before graduating, before email and before social media existed, the cohort created a chain letter where one graduate wrote about what she was doing and then sent it off to the next person. This letter was rotated to keep up with each other.
When you all graduated (pre-email, pre-social media) you wrote a “chain letter” and rotated it to keep in touch throughout the years. Can you tell us more about it?
Lori: Honestly, I had forgotten about the “chain letter” until someone started talking about it.
Korey: I couldn’t remember who started it, but I wrote my update and sent it on to the next person and then finally sent it back to TCU. Apparently, we thought that our professors were anxiously waiting to hear from us – ha!
Alissa: I believe this was right around the time email started becoming a big deal, but it was still too new to do a “group email.” I think I wrote the initial letter, which just gave an update about my husband and me moving to Kansas City and where I had gotten a job. I then sent it to the next person on the list, and they added to it and sent it to the next person. I think we did this for one round, but it was labor-intensive and fizzled out pretty quickly!
Nicole: The “chain letter” only made one round, but we did get together again for a one-year reunion in 1998 and a five-year reunion in 2002. By that time, life had gotten busier with growing families, moves, job changes, etc., and we did not see each other much in person as a group after that.
Alissa is in Kansas City, MO, and has worked in adult rehab since she graduated.
After graduation, Korey moved back to Omaha, NE, to work at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in its pediatric unit.
Laura worked in Fort Worth until she and her husband moved to Saudi Arabia.
These are just a few of the highlights. This cohort has tremendous stories to tell about their time at TCU and after graduation.