My favorite picture of my mom and I on the Frazer river in Vancouver, BC.
With people asking about my life and background, I thought it would be important and good to share what made me the person I am today.
I wrote this as a letter to a close friend originally, but thought it would make a good testimony page. It is from the heart, and there are probably a few spelling and grammer errors, but if you can see past that to the real words on this page, then you will see the situations that made me who I am today.
Originally I was going to delete this section thinking it would probably either be a bore, or take up valuable web space till some friends "suggested strongly" that I should keep it.
Well, I should start with my Mom, as she is the one who brought me into this world!
My mom came over from Hungary in 1956, she escaped during the Hungarian revolution then when the little country of Hungary tried to oust the Russians...the Russians rolled in with tanks and there were a lot of people who got killed, all the while Britian, and the United States were too afraid to get involved with Russia again...and change history for the worse.
Mom escaped with only the clothes she was wearing. As a refugee, she was sent to Canada, and eventually ended up in the interior of British Columbia taking odd jobs, all the while having to learn English, and had no relatives over here for support. She waitressed for a bit, and the only way she got food was to eat sometimes was what was left over from the plates.
She met my dad (Robert Angus McLaughlin) and a short time later I was born June 7, 1958 in Chilliwack, BC. About an hour outside of Vancouver, BC. In little as 8 months after I was born my parents got a divorce but that's another story
It is hard growing up as a guy with no male role model, or father to look up to. No one to throw ball with, go to football games with, get disciplined by, or want to be just like dad.
But...the most amazing thing happened to me in September '98...my father phoned me! Seems Bev, my wife, was able to find him via the online white and yellow pages and get him to call me. We had a good chat. It was interesting to get his side of the story, albeit 39 years later. We are in contact now and sending pictures to each other. It will take a bit of time to recoup all the years, but with the Lord's help, we'll make it through. The truth will always come out. But I now know why my mom left him and raised me by herself - and I will always be grateful for what she had to sacrifice to do that.
Anyways, my Mom had no where to live or go, so she moved to Vancouver to look for work, and from there raised me single-handedly. The Lord was with her back then and opened a door to get a job at a private catholic school as a housekeeper and nurse assistant. The school was called Vancouver College.
That's where I grew up. It was a private boarding school, so from grades 7-12 I lived in the dormatories. Those were what I call the "dark ages" of my life. It was a very tough time for me growing up in there, I was a loner which made me not too popular with my peers.
Back in the '70s drugs was a big thing, and the school was very lax in it's rules, along with a double standard. I never went into drugs thank God, or took up smoking joints. I got sick over one...good thing eh?
My childhood sweetheart, Leslie Hignall and me were like two peas in a pod. Always hanging around each other, she lived 2 houses down from the school. But in grade 7 she went to a another public school and we didn't see each other after that. Broke my little heart.
I was always in fights and stuff and i never really won any. I almost killed a guy, by holding his head down to the gas jets in the chem lab and tried gassing him, but stopped...he became a good buddy after that..weird eh?
I graduated in 1976 with about a 58% average. I was an "A" student in my early grades, but dropped real bad in junior high, don't know what the cause was really. Maybe because that I was molested as a kid by one of the teachers and some of the older kids back when I was in grade 4 or 6. Oh yeah, some of my teachers, the so called "Christian Brothers" (a Catholic outfit) were finally arrested and charged for molestation of kids. See the CBC show, "Boys of St. Vincent". Anyways, it didn't do much for my self image and confidence.
After graduation, I went to Vancouver Community College (different place) and took psychology and sciences. Only time i understood the teacher in psych class was when i was drunk. I started going to parties and other stuff in College, but gave up on it from guilt thinking of how my mom raised me and put me thru school...not for this kinda lifestyle.