So, while I was living in the big city, of Toronto, Canada raising my children and where I met my soon-to-be second husband. At first, I didn't want any part of it. I did not want to get married again. The first one was traumatic enough, but he kept asking me until I finally said yes, and we planned our wedding with my two children Kerry, who was five and Sandra who was eight at the time stood up for us when we got married in 1968.

My second husband who was named Douglas was a wonderful man who could love my children as his own. The love he gave and received was a welcome change. We eventually had a child together who is my youngest Laura.

Moving on my life was full at times exciting and seeing my children grow into the beautiful people they have become, was all I could ask for.

I now have three children 10 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. During our years together, he opened his own business, and one of them was selling cars.

        

A funny incident happened. He had a Corvette, parked in the window, a thief came along and drove the Corvette right through the windows with the police chasing him because the alarms had all gone off. Afterward, the policewoman who had chased him down said it was very easy to follow him because every time he made a turn, he turned his signal on. I guess he wasn't too smart in the first place.

I eventually went back to school and got a couple of degrees one in accounting and another one years later in interior design. At first, I opened my own business in accounting my job at that time was to take regular books and turn them into a computer system. I bought a computer for $6000 and would take people's handwritten books and turn them into computerized systems.

When I got bored with that, I decided to become an interior designer and had a business running that for quite a few years, and then at the end of my married life, I went back to school and became a real estate agent which was very lucrative for a few years. At the age of 57, my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away five months later. Too painful being around all the memories I don't remember the next seven years as I'm sure you all know life just passes in a blur when you're grieving. I moved away from the area. All my children were married with children of their own, so I moved into a small town and got on with my life. It was too painful being around all those memories.

Sure, enough. in comes the gardener
and dog started barking and alerted everybody. We all covered up, and that saved our dignity. We sold the calendars in various stores in the area and stood in the mall flogging them. We were on television, and all in all, it was exciting.

I joined various clubs to fill the time and one of them was the Red Hatters. Among the many fun things, we did was create a nude calendar like the calendar girl's movie. Here is a copy of it as you can see. I am on the front cover and inside as well. We did this to raise funds for the cancer society in Canada and netted over $18,000. I had a female photographer that took photos around town in my backyard in my house and on one occasion they were 12 or 13 nude women running around my backyard and I said to them it's very private back here, but I don't know if the gardener or the pool man will show up, so be prepared.

I did a lot of traveling at that time in my life and for the next 15 years. I've been to England, France, Italy Vietnam Germany, Sicily, Spain, Portugal, Malta, etc. saw the Sphinx and the great pyramids, threw coins in the Trevi fountain in Rome, walked on the killing fields in Cambodia, and marveled at the beauty of Angkor Wok. I took a total of over 25 cruises mostly in the Caribbean but also the Mediterranean. during the winter.

I tried Florida, but eventually settled in Palm Springs. I had decided to go down to Florida for a few years, but I didn't like it there and one year I got in the car with my little dog Pepper and decided I was going to go to California. I had been invited the year my husband died by an aunt and uncle, to come and stay with them in Palm Springs and fell in love with the place. It was a no-brainer. I was going to come to Palm Springs.

Another time I'm traveling through something called the badlands. I don't remember exactly where I was. I was the only one on the road on the highway and you can see for Miles and Miles of mountains were in the distance the mountains were behind me. I was in the flatland, and I notice to my left was the ranger with his gun perched on the back of his truck. I wondered what I had done wrong, but he just followed me side-by-side until we hit a county line and then I noticed another sheriff in another truck with another gun following me till I went to another county line. A single woman from Ontario, Canada.

I have often wondered what that was all about. Were they protecting me, did they see my license plate being in Ontario, Canada a single woman alone all I know is I was thankful they were there, because I had a feeling where I was, was not a very safe place.

On another occasion when I was driving through the mountains, and it was snowing or pitch black with no lights whatsoever I noticed that I was surrounded by truckers. I had one in front of me one on either side of me and one behind me and we were doing 90 to 100 miles an hour through the mountains in pitch black. Again, I thought of them as my guardian angels because without them I wouldn't have known the road was twisting and bending and turning and the lights kept me in
place. I just put my signal on and the truck on my right moved away

When I finally got to the place where I had booked a hotel room, I just put my signal on and the truck on my right moved away, and off I went. It's hard not to believe in angels when things like that happen to you. I drove 13-hour days mostly during daylight hours, although occasionally because of storms, etc. it turned out that I had to drive after dark.

During a blizzard a trucker slid off the road. My friends and family thought I was crazy traveling all that way by myself but again determined I was. On the way down a few exciting things happened. I was on a mountaintop in Utah, and I
watched a trucker slide right off the road and go into a deep crevasse during a blizzard and black ice. I noticed all the other truckers were stopping. I continued since there's not much I could do but I've never forgotten it.