I was born in Montreal in 1962, the first of five children. My parents met and married in Montreal. My father, John, aged 28, was working as a stationary engineer for Canada Steamship Lines. My mother, Eileen, aged 18, went from her parent's home to her marital home and became a mother/housewife.
In 1969, as the family was getting larger, my parents left Montreal and bought a house in the hamlet of South Lancaster, Ontario. The week after we moved into our new home, my father was injured in an explosion onboard a ship. He suffered second and third degree burns over 55% of his body. He faced years of skin grafts and a slow recovery.
We lived in South Lancaster till December 1972, when our home burned down forcing my parents to purchase another house in the village of Lancaster the following year.
My parents had five children: Steven, Donna, Norman, Darren, and Brian.
I attended very small local schools till I left home at 18 to study at a college in Cornwall, Ontario. Two years laters, I moved to Ottawa to continue my studies living in the capital from 1983 to 1995.
In 1995, I left Canada to work as a social worker in the UK. Prior to leaving my flat in Ottawa, my brother Darren was killed in a car crash. The driver of the other car was drunk and driving down the wrong side of a dual carriageway near Lancaster.
When an insurance settlement had been reached in my brother's death, my parents sold the "family" home in Lancaster to my brother Norman and bought a small bungalow in South Lancaster, where they have retired.
After two years of working as a social worker, I resigned, returned to Ottawa to take a short course to teach English to speakers of other languages, and, in 1998, began teaching English in The Czech Republic, where I stayed for two and half years.
Currently, I live in the UK, as a student nurse, with my partner. |
