The Inspiring Women of Lakewood Drive by Sarah Raplee McDermed

It was only while thinking about the women who helped shape my character that I realized most of them were not famous. Most of them were women I knew personally while growing up.

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Foremost was my mother, Catherine Raplee, who demonstrated strength, competence and independence from my earliest memories. 

My father was an aspiring commercial pilot, which meant they had to move thousands of miles from her family for him to attend flight school and then work as an air taxi pilot in Oklahoma. Mom had to adapt to the fact that Dad wasn't home some nights, and that we all depended on her to handle things without him. She gained confidence in herself and her abilities during those early years.

Pan Am Logo

Later, when Dad landed a job as a pilot for Pan American World Airways, Mom would "keep the home fires burning", sometimes for a week or ten days. This was before the advent of cheap international phone calls, Facetime and Zoom. Sometimes Dad wrote letters or sent postcards from exotic locales. We couldn't afford international calls.  Mom had to help three kids adjust to their Dad being away for extended periods.

During those years we lived on Lakewood Street in Sunnyvale, California. Many of the husbands in the neighborhood were in the Navy. My friend Stephanie's dad was stationed on an aircraft carrier. He was at sea for most of the year. Stephanie's mom was on her own with four little kids. I learned some important lessons. Count your blessings! And women can handle difficult situations on their own with strength and grace.

When Dad was laid off from Pan Am, he went to work for World Airways, a non-scheduled airline, and was gone for weeks at a time for less pay. Mom earned money taking care of the neighbor's two little kids while both of their parents worked. 

I was about eight years old when Mrs. King from down the street lost her baby. Me and Stephanie felt so bad for her that we made cookies and took them to her. She thanked us and invited us inside to share them with her. I never forgot how she was strong enough to be kind to two little girls during such a difficult time.

New neighbors moved in next door. They were a young couple with a couple of little kids. The mother was in a wheelchair because of a hunting accident when she was twelve. She was shot in the spine. She managed the house very well, but her four-year-old was a handful. When he would climb onto the fence, his mom called my mom for help getting him down. She had the strength to ask for help when she needed it.

My dad was re-hired by Pan Am when I was ten. He was stationed on Guam in the Marianas Islands, so we packed up and moved nine-thousand miles away. We lived in the village of Tamuning in a hillside  neighborhood of concrete block houses overlooking my school. 

In a whole new neighborhood of inspiring women!