Return to the Land

majoring in home economics at Madison College in Harrisonburg, Virginia when I was studying at University of Richmond. The separation of us being at two different schools was more than we could bear and during the Christmas vacation on December 28, 1956 we were married. That had to be one of the best decisions of my life. If there was ever a marriage made in heaven this was it.

David S. Miller, II, M.D. in 1962 at the time of graduation from the Medical College of Virginia, and Janet Elizabeth Bird Miller in 1955 while a freshman at Madison College

We had virtually no money and both our parents helped us and I worked part-time as a lab assistant in quantitative and qualitative chemistry at Richmond. If it hadn’t been for Jan I would have never gotten through Latin my senior year. We lived in an upstairs apartment of a private home in south Richmond owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Gale. These two hard-nosed but supportive people supervised us through my last year at Richmond and really became our close friends. During my senior year our first child was born, Sara Leigh, whom became the first grandchild on both sides of the family. I thought Sara was the prettiest baby girl I’d ever seen and she made our family joyous. During the summer vacations between classes we’d r eturn to Bland and I helped Dad farm to defray his expenses. Life was tough having little money and with a wife and baby but we were young and did not know differently. We felt we had the best of all worlds. In 1958 I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Richmond. I was then fortunate enough to be accepted into the freshman class for the fall trimester at the Medical College of Virginia (M.C.V.) in Richmond. Medical school went well for me. My classes in the sciences at Richmond had prepared me for such intensive studies. Medical school was difficult

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