This one should be fun; my parents are definitely one of a kind!
My dad’s name is Doug, and he was born in Edmonton in 1954. He has five brothers and sisters, my aunts and uncles (obviously): G, N, J, C and Little J. I don’t know a whole lot about my dad growing up, just because I never thought to ask. He’s had so many different jobs, and right now he’s working for a computer company selling software and traveling to teach customers how to use it. But I know that he was a swimmer, and trained for the Olympics when he was 17. He missed the cut by about a tenth of a second, but his sister qualified for the diving competition and went to the Munich Olympics in 1972. My dad went to Europe to go watch his sister compete.
My dad is funny, intelligent, balanced, calm, and driven. He’s a solid person to have in your life, but he knows how to have a good time as well. We are a lot alike! I look more like my mother, but am very much my father’s daughter.
My dad was married once before he met my mom, and he had one son with her — I have a half-brother out there somewhere. We’ve fallen out of touch, but I remember C was around when I was younger. He ended up moving to the United States to be with a woman 10 years older than him with two kids. But that’s another story entirely.
My dad met my mother while he was managing a Pizza Hut, and my mom applied to be a waitress.
This is where I’ll make the transition to talk about my mother, and then come back to them as a couple. (Subtle transition, right?)
My mom Barb was born in Edson, Alberta in 1960. She has one brother and one sister, and her parents immigrated to the country when my uncle was 3 years old. There’s a large age difference between my mom and her siblings; my uncle is 12 years older than she is, and my aunt is 7. My grandparents left Germany after the second World War. My mom didn’t finish high school in the typical way; her parents left for the coast to live on the ship my grandfather built, and she stayed in the city to live with her sister. She got a diploma after the fact. My mom was engaged once before my dad was in the picture, and seriously dated someone else named Doug as well. Freaky.
My mom is funny, wild, extroverted, impulsive, and the life of any party. She’s one of the most caring people I know, and when she’s found a cause that she can get behind she does it wholeheartedly. I still remember when my brother got appendicitis on our family vacation to the Dominican Republic, and the hospital staff treated him so well. She sent dozens of pairs of fake crocs to the hospital after we came back to Canada, because all the nurses loved the ones she was wearing. That’s just how kindhearted my mom is.
My dad and mom met at the restaurant he owned, and got together shortly after. Eventually, they moved to Vancouver to start their married life there. My parents were married in April of 1986, and their 25th wedding anniversary was in 2011 (!!). They lived in Surrey until March of 1995, when we moved back to Alberta to be closer to family after my maternal grandfather started to get sick. My grandparents lived on a small island in the Pacific Ocean until his health started to fail and they started the move to Alberta.
My parents are different in their personalities and dispositions, but they balance each other out nicely. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if they didn’t!
I also love that my parents are still married in the age of divorce. It really means a lot to me. And the fact that my dad was married once before and realized that he made a mistake, it’s comforting to know that you really can get a do-over in life.
So those are my parents!
