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Cathy started her presentation by thanking the club members for the lovely welcome she has received. She then proceeded with an unscripted anecdote: After having sat beside battle-scarred Sarge Mike (from a fall in his garage) whose mishap days before his 44th wedding anniversary, she was reminded of a story about her Auntie Pat who had smashed her face against the bathroom sink a couple of days before her and Uncle’s 25th anniversary, which was organized as a big party at the Forester’s Hall. She wondered “Maybe this is an anniversary thing?” What attracted Cathy to Rotary were the ads about the Assiniboine Forest – she grew up on a ¾ acre bush beside the Tran- Canada Highway in NW Ontario. It was her father’s Veteran’s Land Grant “farm”. She was 3 years old and her big brother was 8 and they had no neighbors nearby. With no running water at the time, they had chores like pumping water to fill the big barrel in the utility room, shoveling a big driveway in the winter, weeding the garden and taking care of the family dog. When the temperature outside was above -30 deg F, their mother would give her children a bag with a sandwich each, a jar full of Cool-Aid, and a couple of cookies and told them to go play outside (in the bush) and come back for supper. At one stage, her brother’s “fort”, that was located on a neighbor’s property and was being repeatedly messed up, turned out to be a bear’s den. The bear apparently didn’t appreciate her brother’s interior decorating! The fort had to be moved to a different location. While out and about, the children would bring home “tons of blueberries” that their mother used to bake amazing blueberry pies. There were lots of strawberries to pick as well, but were eaten by the time the children came home for supper. Her entrepreneur brother also sold Regal greeting cards along the Trans-Canada highway with his cute sister as partner. Once a week, Wednesday afternoon from 3 to 5 was when Cathy’s mother would meet with her sisters and sisters-in-law, rotating between the five homes. Cathy’s Dad called Wednesdays “gads day” (Gads is Scottish expression for something that is disgusting or repulsive).Cousins were involved as well and everyone got dressed up – and the Moms all wore their girdles to make a good impression. While hoeing the garden, Cathy’s Mom had a gall bladder attack. She put on a girdle when she went into Emergency. She learned that all her cousins were learning all kinds of things from “friends”. She and her brother just had each other until Cathy went to school. Grade 1 was fun. Because the first country school she had attended had no empty desks she had to go to a different country school for Grade 2 – with “all different kids” and this was repeated for Grades 3, 4 and 5. Finally, for Grades 6, 7 and 8 she stayed in the same school with the same 9 students who bonded. Her father was a Grade 6 math tutor because he had a Grade 6 education. In Grade 6 he had contracted measles and the doctor advised his parents that their son should not go back to school (but neglected to mention that he could go back to school when the measles went away!) Cathy was bused to high school (with its 1200 students), where she registered for the University Entrance program (i.e. up to Grade 13). However, after graduating from high school, she decided not to go to University and got a job. Her Dad bought a truck with the money he had saved for her University education. A friend talked her into moving to Winnipeg (Transcona) in January. In Winnipeg, Cathy got a clerical job and took post-secondary courses part time. At Red River College her first course was Marketing and she had the highest grade in the class. Next she took accounting and did well there, too. Her company reimbursed her tuition and encouraged her to become an accountant. She registered in the CGA program – persuaded by an instructor that would pick her up and drive her to class. By the time she got her CGA designation, she was married and had her second baby on the way, teaching evening classes at RRCC on a part-time basis. Finding child care was a real challenge, so Cathy did the books for a couple of small clients from her home. Cathy’s new-born daughter had some intellectual and physical disabilities, with the result that Cathy’s full time job became waiting to see specialists at the Children’s Hospital. At this point, she kept up her evening class and started on her University courses by distance education (using mail) at the University of Manitoba. One morning in the last week of August she got a phone call from the Accounting Department Head at Red River College inviting her to teach full time for 12 weeks because the appointed instructor had quit over the summer. With three young children and no childcare, her answer was no – three times. After the 4th phone call from the same head, the unemployed mother of one of her son’s playmates agreed to take care of Cathy’s children for 12 weeks. Cathy found proper childcare centers and subsequently worked for 8 years at the RRCC Accounting Department. When her daughter turned 12, she was no longer eligible for before and after school day care. That was when Cathy learned of a position of accounting instructor with Assiniboine Community College in Brandon which offered its Business Administration program by distance education. That meant she was able to work from home, walk her daughter to school in the mornings before the mail came with assignments sent in by rural students, have an afternoon nap, pick up her daughter from school and earn more than she had previously working full-time (because she was paid by the student – and she had a lot of them!). She also developed a number of courses in accounting, economics, mathematics, etc. She also volunteered for the Manitoba Lung Association, spoke to school groups, to employees of Manitoba Hydro and Motorcoach Industries, and occasional contracts - usually to Indigenous schools – by which time her oldest son was old enough to take care of his sister. This was followed by an opportunity to work for ten years at Yellow Quill College on Madison Street in Winnipeg and for Red River College’s Certificate Adult Education program (which offered a Masters In Adult Education that Cathy took; it was very expensive but gave her a chance to meet people from other parts of the c<> Her daughter spent seven and a half months in hospital after suffering a major stroke. Most of that time was waiting for the agency she lived with to find a house that they could adapt for her and her roommates. COVID hit the city soon after she was released from the hospital, so she has been trapped in that house ever since. In July 2019 Cathy’s one and only granddaughter was born and Cathy has just completed 13 months of providing Grandma care and she’s ready to look for something more to do. She belongs to a couple of book clubs and has been doing a lot of reading lately. She said she’s eaten lobster in St John’s, has no skills cooking lobster, but she said she could probably sweep the floor! |
HAPPY BUCKS