A Little About Me in the Early Years

I got my name from a perfume bottle. Back when my mom was pregnant, she saw the name Tatiana on a perfume in a department store and decided she would name me that (even though the doctors insisted I was going to be a boy). Mom knew I was going to be a girl because she said her dad (Nery Sanchez, who had died before my first sibling was even born) visited her and told her. Needless to say that doctors were pretty surprised when I came out. I always felt cheated that I had the “ugliest” name. (Just glad it wasn’t Marcella, like they had thought about). Nobody could ever pronounce it right, and I always thought they were picking on me. All throughout my grade school years I always wished I had a “normal” name like “Ashley” or “Megan.” But now I am VERY grateful I don’t have one of those boring, all-too-common names.

My family lived in a small, split-level house in West Valley (a suburb of Salt Lake). I don’t remember much about that place, except that I had Mickey Mouse wallpaper in my bedroom, a big trampoline in the backyard, a sand pit underneath our back porch, and a huge tree out front. I had some neighbor friends. Danielle lived down the street from me, and I remember walking to her house sometimes. Tenille was friends with her brother Donald, and she used to have him wrapped around her finger. Tenille once made him lick some pee off a toilet seat, and put him in the dryer. You would never guess she did that by the way she is now (mature, reserved, soft-spoken). I had another neighbor across the street from me whose name I don’t recall, but I remember being extremely jealous that she could blow a bubble with her bubble gum before I could.

My dad’s parents lived in Kearns, which wasn’t too far from us. We used to visit Grandma & Grandpa Banks (Doris & Bruce). My grandma was always very sick, though. She always wore a muumuu or nightgown, and sat in her recliner while Grandpa waited on her. (It wasn’t until after she died that I learned she had lupus, diabetes, and a slew of other problems. She used to pray to die because she was in so much pain.) We visited them on Sundays, and before we left she would give us a piece of Bubblicious Bubble Gum (the purple kind). One time she forgot to give us some, and I remember thinking that she didn’t love me. Behind their house was a big auto-body garage. My grandpa used to work in that thing all the time (and when they were younger he used to own a gas station. Dad said people would be angry with him when he wouldn’t give them free gas.). My sister, Tenille, and I would ride tricycles down the pavement in and out of his garage.

Speaking of tricycles, I have two scars: on my chin and my forehead. I don’t remember getting them, but was told I rode a tricycle down the stairs in my old yellow house in West Valley, and went right out the front door. Tenille had just come home from school and didn’t catch me!

Our little neighborhood used to be so nice. You didn’t have to worry about locking your doors, or walking anywhere by yourself because it was so safe. I remember one summer all five of us kids, and a few neighbor kids, walked about a mile to the Circle K Gas Station to buy some candy. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. The neighborhood isn’t so great now.  If you drive back that way it’s so dirty. It’s one of the worst places to live in Utah. People there no longer take care of their homes or yards. It’s just not what is used to be. Mom says it’s pretty sad.

Before my mom had me she worked (although I’m not exactly sure which job she did then. I do know she used to be a secretary for the Church Headquarters and for Salt Lake Community College). And because of her job, she had to take my siblings to a babysitter. She hated being away from her family. She knew she needed to be at home, and so she started her own home daycare business. She did home daycare for over 25 years (after retiring for good in June 2009). My dad worked, too. He worked for UPS while going to night school. When he graduated from the University of Utah with his degree in Business Management, he got a job working at the University of Utah Federal Credit Union.