"Back in The Day"
By: Linda Katherine Baker, M.A. Psychology and Counseling
For decades, Linda Katherine Baker has been synonymous with success as a Marriage and Family Counselor. Later on, she was also a very successful Vice President of Corporate Relations for a $17 Million Dollar Personnel Company. Her job was overseeing Sales and Marketing for six offices throughout Southern California. Through all her successes in life, she seemed to always be outrunning her past. She never got over feeling abandoned and she had so many doubts and insecurities from a childhood filled with Trauma from her mother being diagnosed with a Brain Tumor and left paralyzed on the right side after two Brain Surgeries, her father divorcing her mother, and at the same time being raised in the limelight with a father who was Richard Nixon's First Campaign Manager.
Until she was nine years old. She was raised by Nannies who lived in her home with her father who was busy with Nixon and other political campaigns. Also, during that time, he was building one of the most successful printing companies in Southern California. He did all the printing for tickets and passes for Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. Linda shares the reality she faced daily, that her mother was no longer able to care for herself and would be an invalid for the rest of her life. Linda spent 20 years visiting her mother in places like Casa Colina and other Care Facilities until she passed away.
It was a lonely life for Linda growing up. She had a younger sister 18 months younger than she was who took years to deal with Abandonment Issues. Linda to this day, still carries feelings of abandonment from her past. In every endeavor, she always felt she was not good enough. When she was starting high school, her father told her she would never amount to anything and would end up being the third mangle in a dry cleaner someday. Linda subconsciously worked most of her life to prove her father wrong no matter what she sacrificed. She was very successful, but in achieving that goal, she ended a 20-year marriage and ironically, abandoned her son when he was only 9 years old.
