When Gilroy resident Michelle Crowell Gonsolin decided to become a veterinarian, it was going to take more than a hurricane to blow her off course.
Growing up in Morgan Hill, Michelle graduated in 1994 from Live Oak High School. After completing courses at Gavilan College, Michelle transferred to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where she completed her degree in animal science.
Her decision to enter veterinarian school at St. George’s University in Grenada—an island in the southeastern Caribbean near the South American mainland—brought with it a lifestyle quite different than what most young adults from the South Valley experience.
Michelle headed for school and new adventures in this tropical land, leaving behind her parents, older siblings and her boyfriend Jim. Naturally gregarious, Michelle made friends and they frequently socialized and visited nearby Trinidad.
Now I think most parents of college-age kids would claim ambivalence toward some of their progenies’ phone calls home. On one hand, you’re happy to hear your kid’s voice, but on the other … well, there’s this: “Hi, Dad, I lost your bank card, can you please send cash?”
But presumably it’s safe to say few parents are prepared to hear, “Mom, we’re being hit by a hurricane.” But that’s the gist of the message Michelle’s mom, Ginger, got while talking long-distance to her daughter on Sept. 8, 2004. For this, I think Ginger and her husband, Bud, deserve the Purple Heart of Parenting.
The night before Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Grenada, Michelle was enjoying dinner out with friends. Someone at the table remarked that the “winds are picking up.”
This, it turns out, was an understatement. Initially predicted to be a tropical storm, the next day Hurricane Ivan turned path and struck Granada. Given minimal notice of the approaching storm, students arrived at school only to be sent home with a caution to be sure they had plenty of water.
Living in a small apartment close to campus, Michelle’s place became home to 12 to 15 people, four cats and two dogs. The hurricane had disrupted electricity but left a working landline telephone.
The university, a colonial stucco structure, sustained broken windows and water damage, but endured the storm better than many of the islanders’ homes, which suffered catastrophic damage. Due to the destruction, students were given the choice of taking off a semester or continuing classes at another school. Michelle chose to continue at Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan.
“We went from wearing flip-flops on a tropical island to snow,” Michelle said.
The snow wouldn’t be a factor for long, however. After just three months in Kansas, Michelle returned to Grenada to finish courses. Her fourth year was spent at North Carolina State University where she did her clinical rotation. Michelle graduated with her class in June 2006 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Michelle and her (by then) fiancé, Jim, along with family and friends, enjoyed a week in New York seeing the sights.
When Michelle moved back to the South Valley, she brought a keepsake of Hurricane Ivan and her three years on the island: Nemo the cat, a rescue animal from Grenada and a tangible souvenir who is now part of the family.
One month after planting her feet back on U.S. soil, Michelle and Jim were married. And since she is no stranger to crazy weather events, it was only fitting their wedding occurred during the “Great Heat Wave of 2006,” where the mercury blasted up to a sizzling 114 degrees.
Soon thereafter, Michelle happened upon Thor, a pit bull/boxer mix she fostered and then adopted while working at Silicon Valley Pet Clinic.
Michelle said she loves the community feeling of living in the South Valley and doesn’t ever want to live north of Morgan Hill. She commutes to Sunnyvale where she practices medicine and surgery at Arroyo Animal Clinic, a facility dedicated to small animal needs.
Along with Nemo, Thor and their two young daughters, Emma and Nora, the Gonsolins are expecting a third child—a boy—June 16.
I’m not sure you could say life has settled down much for Michelle and Jim, but something tells me they wouldn’t want it any other way.
Gale Hammond is a writer and freelance photographer who has lived in Morgan Hill since 1983. Reach her at ga***************@ya***.com.
