In the years that followed however, Gretel's life took a different route. Soon she was wrenching on British sports cars with her father and may have been the only high-school senior in Bartholomew county to drive an Austin Healey bug-eyed sprite to school. She went to Purdue University and graduated with a degree in Electrical Technology landing a gig working with portable generator sets for Caterpillar. "I loved the work and the people I worked beside," she says. "But when my children came along I put the career on hold in order to raise the kids. I was so fortunate to be in a position to do so." With no regrets, Gretel left Caterpillar to focus on her family. When her children began to attend school, she drove a school bus – the largest car pool in town! Through a series of circumstances, she then began a job with Bennett’s Greenhouses in Lafayette.