It is hard to believe that I (and Myra Friesen) started at MEI 56 years ago in grade 7, the first year the school opened, and 50 years have passed since we graduated from Westgate. This feels a bit like I’m writing my own obituary, but as a pragmatic person, it may come in handy someday.
Life has been quite the journey these past 50 years. Following graduation I attended Red River College and became a Medical Radiation Technologist. I worked at what is now Cancer Care Manitoba for eight years.
In 1967 I married Peter and we had two children, Leanne and Mark. Mark is married to Alison and I am a very proud Oma to one 16-month-old granddaughter, Dawn.
I continued to work summer relief at Cancer Care while the children were little. Then an opportunity arose to work at Statistics Canada part time, which I did for a number of years.
I decided to embark on my third career and returned to school, studying to become a Certified General Accountant (CGA). I worked as an accountant in a public practice firm, at the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities, and at Salisbury House head office.
After Peter retired, we sold the house in Winnipeg and moved to Qualicum Beach, BC where we built a house. I continued working part time in public practice for a number of years.
Peter and I travelled some and indulged in our hobbies, which included gardening, golfing and fishing. After he died in 2009, I continued to travel with my sister Irene from Calgary (who also attended Westgate) and a brother from Toronto. We hope that our younger brother will join us one of these days.
Leanne is an assistant superintendent in Lakeshore School Division, and Mark is the marketing manager at the International College of Manitoba. They live five minutes apart, which makes it convenient for my return trips to Winnipeg at Christmas; unfortunately this also happens to be the coldest time of the year to visit Manitoba.
When not travelling, I now spend my days going for walks along the ocean, gardening, carpet bowling, knitting for the homeless and volunteering in the projection room at church.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you in September.