ABSTRACT
Helen Sandoz was born November 2, 1920, and grew up living on a farm at the edge of a small town in Oregon where her mother lived and worked as a maid. Somewhere along the way, her friends gave her the nickname Sandy, and it stuck with her for life. After she earned her bachelor's degree, she moved to Alaska for a time, then moved back to the lower forty-eight and held supervisory positions in department stores in Washington and Oregon. While doing a bank errand for her mother in Oregon, she rear-ended a farmer's truck transporting a pregnant cow. Thinking the accident was minor, Sandy was so focused on reaching the bank that she was unaware how injured she was. The bank teller asked, “Miss Sandoz, did you know that there is blood trickling down your chin?” Sandy had not been aware of any personal injury, but left the bank to seek medical treatment and learned that she had broken her neck. She had to spend a year in a full-body cast and never again was able to sit in a chair or remain immobile for any length of time. Never one to waste time or unnecessary energy in self-pity or meaningless activity, Sandy decided to shift her career goal to one in which she did not have to sit for any length of time.
