Minnesota Home Stager Report - Better late.....

  Photo by MeraM

Bob Bourassa graduated with the Class of 1954 - kind of.  He did not have enough credits to graduate and get the diploma because he had suffered a severe burn injury at the end of his senior year. At the time of the ceremony he got an empty folder, which would be filled when his missing three credits were made up.

Fifty-three years later, Bob walked across the stage at the Brainerd High School District Learning Center and fulfilled his dream of graduating from high school."It's really neat," said his wife. Beryl.  "It's something he's wanted to do for a long time."

When Bob was 18 - he and his sister were left in charge of their 3 younger siblings while their parents made an out of town trip.  During the night the fire in the furnace went out and Bob went downstairs to  start a new fire.  He used a small sprinkling can filled with gasoline to start it faster.  The fire fared up  resulting in severe burns to his right hand and the right side of his body.  He spent 2 weeks in the hospital and two weeks at home . When he returned  to school in May, he had difficulty writing with his injured hand. Two of his teachers created multiple choice questions for the final, so he only had to circle the correct answer. Three other teachers didn't and gave him  an incomplete, because he couldn't do the work, Bob said.

He became the foreman in a construction company making $400/month. 

On January 17, 1955 he enlisted in the US Air Force  and served four years in the Air Force.  When he returned to Brainerd he got a job at Potlatch Paper  Mill (formerly Northwest)and worked there 38 1/2 years. He wanted to return to school then but ended up caring for his aging parents until his father died in 2000. Then he tended to his mother Lorraine's home.  Bob himself got sick and then underwent a few surgeries, one being hip replacement.

Upon recovering, he went back to school. "It has always been on my mind all these years," Bourassa said of receiving his diploma.  "I never forgot it, you know."  Bob advises others to never give up on their goals.  It's never too late, he said.  "Don't go to bed at night or die without fulfilling your dream," he said.

Kathleen Lordbock

Re$ale Design and Home Staging

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