My mother never thought I’d amount to anything. She always said, “You’ll be pregnant and in jail by the time you’re sixteen.”

Cruel words from a woman who chose to adopt a cute little brown-eyed girl who’d been given away at age six and spent a year in an unloving foster home. But she was wrong – even if I was a straight A student who quit high school in my final year, had two practice marriages, and was left to raise four young boys as a single mom.

Single Mom

It took me three years to work through the heartache and financial hardships in order to support my growing brood. Thank God for hand-me-downs with name labels, even though my youngest son was four before he realized his name wasn’t Jon Robert Jason Kyle!  Darn – who was wearing that shirt now?

With great perseverance, I taught myself to keep books, which led to a cost accountant job at a car dealership. But the pay was only enough to provide the necessities for my sons; they couldn’t join groups with their friends, and it broke my heart.

One day while I was pouring this out to my best friend, Jude, she said, “Go to university and become a teacher. You’d make a great one! Look at the lessons you’ve learned.”

But what would I teach? What courses did I need? How could I care for my boys if I quit my job for this? Then I discovered that the grants and loans I could get were more than I was making. Yes, I’d have to repay them, but on a teacher’s salary? Totally doable.

Jude gave me faith in myself when no one else did. They all thought I was being a foolish and irresponsible parent. They said I’d fail and let my boys down. However, I chose to listen to Jude, my one true encourager. She changed my life and I’m eternally grateful (thank you, Jude).

Back to School at 40

In university, I discovered myself. My confidence soared, I loved the camaraderie of like-minded people, and social events became easier. I also started acting up. There were no easy answers to the questions I was asked regarding my unusual life and the more I tried to explain, the funnier my stories got. People said they could listen to me for hours!

But it was one thing to entertain a few people, and another to be assigned an oral presentation in front of the whole class. I was terrified, but I was also very creative, so I set up a stage and had puppets present my assignment while I hid behind the scenes. Everybody laughed and I got a great grade!

New Beginnings

I went to school year-round and graduated with my BA and B.Ed. in 3 years and 11 days. I also got engaged to a fellow graduating teacher, and for 24 years we had the most amazing life together. We shared all kinds of adventures and laughter was an every-present element – music to our souls.

When he took ill and couldn’t care for himself, we found I could as this English teacher became a caregiver. Like before, others had things to say like it was ridiculous for me to care for him at home. However, if I hadn’t we wouldn’t have experienced our road trips to boat around the islands at Parry Sound or have laughed hysterically the day we both fell into a ditch.

Some of it wasn’t pretty, but we made it work until he passed. It was a privilege for me to care for my husband number three. No more practicing; he was the real deal.