Jim Bluebaker was very selective about the girls that he dated. Hank, his dad told him; "Son, two things to remember in life, carefully pick a diamond for a wife, and when you have a chance to get something really important be prepared to risk everything for it".
Jim was starting point guard for Indiana his senior year. His 3.3 grade point average was enough to get him in law school. In June of 1998 he graduated. When he returned home his Mom and Dad sat him down and explained to him that a trust that his grandfather had set up for him was now his. In 1984, 16,666 shares of Microsoft were purchased at a cost of $6.00 per share. There had been two stock splits so the share total was now 66,664. At $115.00 per share, Jim was worth $7,666,360.00.
"Jim, we think that you should travel across the United states. Never let anyone know what you are worth. Work a couple months here and then a couple months there. Study people. Dare. and while you are doing it, look for a woman like your Mother, a Diamond!"
Jim bought a used ten passenger Ford van, removed some seats, and set out. November 3, he was six miles East of Cody, Wyoming on route 14. Howling wind blew the snow. Jim slowed to pass a car stopped partly on the pavement. Seeing a woman inside, he stopped. As he approached the drivers window, he could see that she was about seventy years old and sobbing. He got in the passenger side. He asked if he could help. Her story rushed from her lips. She had run out of money, her car just died, and her doctor had just told her that she only had a short time to live because of her cancer. Worst of all, who would or could take care of her grand daughter?
Jim pushed her car off the road and took her home. Home was a log home, two hundred yards off the road about two miles from where he had met Emma. Emma was very weak. After they got settled, and Emma had made tea, she asked Jim if he would like to meet her grand daughter, Sandy. Entering the bed room, Jim observed a young woman, in a hospital type bed, cranked up, covered from the neck down by a blanket. Coal black hair, offset by white skin and deep blue eyes that stared straight ahead.
Emma explained that Sandy was a Junior at the University of Wyoming, until twenty days ago. She was driving a snowmobile that had hit a tree stump buried under the snow. The doctors performed extensive tests on her. Sandy could not move her head, eyes, arms, legs, or speak. She could feel any touch, hear well, see things in front of her. If you put her on a bed pan, she would go. There were no broken bones. Her doctor wrote that he believed that she had bruised a nerve. She would return to normal, but it might be next week or two years from now. She should be talked to and given as much stimulation as possible. She was sent home with Emma.
