My parents were both born and raised in Woodstock, Ontario. they were high school sweethearts and got married in their early 20’s. My father worked a succession of factory jobs and and provided for his family quite well.
They have both passed away – my mother almost 20 years ago and my father 4 years ago – I’m sure they won’t mind my guessing at the parts I don’t know for sure since I can’t ask them for verification.
My father had an epiphany one day – an epiphany that would send our lives on a roller coaster! He realized that if he continued on the path he was on, he’d end up working and probably drinking his life away with nothing much to show for it. He’d always been a smart person, but was continually told that he’d never amount to anything. The love and encouragement of my mother gave him the courage to go to university when my brother and I were still toddlers. Everyone in his life told him she was crazy and that he couldn’t take such a risk with a young family to support but thank goodness he didn’t listen to them.
He signed up for university and we moved to London, Ontario where he went to the University of Western Ontario. My mother worked at Bell and then at Zellers to support us while my dad went to school and did exceptionally well. He earned his BA in Linguistics and decided that he wanted to teach.
Next step – teachers college in Montreal. While my mother took my brother and I to church one morning, my dad had a yard sale and sold pretty much every single thing we owned. I was 5 at the time and I remember coming home and my mom realizing that he had, in fact, sold almost all of it – I obviously remember that because it was pretty traumatic! My dad knew that we could never bring everything with us and that all we really needed was each other, so off we went to Montreal.
This was also a traumatic time as the FLQ crises was happening and my mom couldn’t speak a word of French and was literally afraid to leave the apartment. I luckily gained a great foundation in French and it has served me well.
So, my dad did his practice teaching in northern Quebec and fell in love with the people and the landscape. When he was offered a teaching job on Baffin Island, he took it. We had another yard sale where my dad really sold everything and off we went to the airport with $100 that my parents had borrowed from my grandparents and our grand adventure had begun.
An overview of our travels
