Background on G'ma

Since I'm going to start including grand"mom"ments from my mother on here, I thought I should provide a little background about her. G-ma, as I'll call her, is from a very small town in Manitoba, Canada. She went to school in a one-room schoolhouse and grew up on a farm. Her father's first wife died, so when he married her mother, she had two half-brothers who were about 10-12 years older than her. They have both passed away. She is the oldest of her mother's children. She has a younger sister who has four kids, and a younger brother who is the baby of the family, and he has three kids of his own.

When my mom was working for BMA, she was sent to Kansas City for a short time for a project. While she was here, she went on a blind date with my dad for New Year's Eve. They had an ok time, but neither of them was wowed. I think my dad was kind of seeing someone else at the time, too. Then the same couple who set them up for New Year's had a Valentine's party, and my parents were both there. They went to get ice and got to talking, and it all clicked for them. If I remember correctly, my dad left for California for a week, but when he got back, they saw each other every day until my mom left to go back to Canada a few weeks later. They talked on the phone every day, and my dad, practical man that he is, said they were wasting a lot of money on long distance, and they should get married. (I like to think he was more romantic about it, but that's how he tells the story.) So that's what they did on April 15th.

While you're mulling over that timeline, let me give you a few more pertinent details. It was the 1960s. My dad was divorced (warning bell #1), his parents were divorced (warning bell #2), he had a kid (warning bell #3), and he lived a thousand miles away (warning bell #4) in a different country (warning bell #5). HELLO!?!?!? Those things would be enough to keep me from marrying him in 2010 - after dating for a year - much less in the '60's when those things were still pretty taboo and having only known the man for three and a half months.

Of course everyone assumed she must be pregnant because of the shotgun wedding, but it was seven years before they were graced with my incredible being, and two more years before my baby sister was born. Clearly my mom is an amazing, brave woman. Can't wait to tell more about her!