M
eet Ramie Hammonds, Director of Development Services. Ramie is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet. She has a heart as big as Texas, especially when caring for animals. Not just the dog and cat variety, but Ramie has a soft spot for all animals. Currently, she is fostering Hank, an opossum! You read that right, an Opossum. She found him without his mother when he was so small that she had to feed him from a bottle. During her first few weeks of caring for Hank, she brought him to work with her so she could care for him and keep him warm throughout the day. Now that he is getting bigger, Hank spends his days waiting for “mom” to get home in his two-story opossum condo.
Everything about Ramie’s story is a bit unique, especially by today’s standards. She was born and raised right here in Sanger, Texas. She has an enormous family support structure. Ramie’s mom, one of 7 children, and dad, one of 8 children, met in Pilot Point when they were kids. They fell in love, married, and raised four beautiful kids! Following her family tradition, Ramie met her now-husband and long-ago high school sweetheart, Mitch, on the square in Pilot Point. Ramie recalled, “He asked me out, and I told him no.” One of Ramie’s close friends had shown an interest in Mitch, and she was certainly not going to cause a rift between them over a boy. She told me, “Mitch was persistent. A few days later, he asked again, and I again said no.” On Mitch’s 3rd attempt, Ramie discovered that her friend had nothing more than a fleeting crush on Mitch, and she had already moved on to showing interest in someone else; Ramie finally said, “Yes.” That was more than 37 years and three kids ago. Today they are still as crazy about each other as they were in the beginning. Ramie spent all of her school years right here in Sanger. She attended Sanger High School, and shortly after graduation; she went to work for the Sanger ISD. She spent 17 years working for the SISD. Her children were then grown up and ready to start their adult lives, so Ramie didn’t have any other ties to the school system. An opportunity came available with the City of Denton Building Department. Not confident she would get the position, Ramie decided to apply anyway. Fate would have her get the job, so she spent the next nine years working for the City of Denton. About five years ago, Ramie became interested in working closer to home. She discovered a position with the City of Sanger similar to what she was doing in Denton and applied. Now, five years later, she is our Director of Development Services. Ramie and her husband have a home on 30 acres here in Sanger. Her love for animals shows when she describes her home. They have horses, cattle, ducks, and chickens. Of course, she has dogs, and then there is Hank. Recently Hank got a close friend to play with. Knowing that Ramie had already taken in one opossum, her neighbors brought one they found in their barn over for her to care for. Until she can figure out if the new addition is a boy or a girl, she calls her new friend, Cranky. Being a bit older than Hank was when she got him, Cranky doesn’t know what a great life he is set to live.
