Just a little bit about us...

I met Max, my future husband, in Nova Scotia...although I certainly didn't know at the time! It was the first day of school - he was just starting Grade 12, and I was going into Grade 11. I had to sit with him on the bus, because his was the only seat available. I remember going home after that first day and saying to my mother "I had to sit with a funny looking guy"! According to Mom, she never heard another boy's name after that day.

Max and I dated through the rest of high school, and after taking some time to work in the "real world", we decided together that it was time to go back to school. For some long-forgotten reason, we ended up in Newfoundland, going to Memorial University. It was the first time we were ever really on our own, far from our families and friends. We learned quickly to rely on each other for everything!

Looking back, I am almost shocked at how young and carefree we were...we came here in an old, beat-up Plymouth, packed to the roof with all our worldly goods, and no safety net. The first few nights after we got to Newfoundland, we ended up sleeping in the car in the parking lot of the Avalon Mall! I shudder now at our fearlessness!

Time passed, as it does...

In 1986 we were married in a small, outdoor ceremony under a huge weeping willow tree. It was a perfect wedding, a perfect day. Max was 21 and I was 19...so young! We continued our educations...Max was on his way to becoming an electrical engineer, and I was studying Behavioural Neuroscience (don't ask!).

Years passed, life was good; we were poor, as all students are, but we were happy. Then one day, after three years of being "just two", I found out I was pregnant. Scary! But exciting, too. I stayed in school right up to the end of my pregnancy; wrote my last final exam of the semester one week before I went into labour, actually...

And so it was that our own family really began. We had our first child, Eric, in 1989, and our second, Jamie, in 1993. Max was working in his chosen field, and I was a stay-at-home Mom for several years.

Max and I were looking forward to celebrating 18 years of marriage this summer. It doesn't seem like it has been that long, and it certainly hasn't been long enough. I still feel like that shy fifteen year old girl he smiled at on the bus...