More about us. (Grab a cuppa – about a 5 min. read!)
I was born in Toronto, Ontario and moved as a 6 year old to the town of Westphal (now part of the City of Dartmouth), Nova Scotia. I now refer to myself as a “Land-locked” Bluenoser. Ted was born in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), and eventually moved to Calgary, Alberta. He considers himself to be a Westerner.
We met briefly in 1972 just before I moved to London, England where I lived and worked for about 1½ years. I.loved.my.time.there! During that time Ted rented my room from my parents while he was back in school and got to know – and love – them very much.
I returned home in 1974 and saw him off and on. It was not love at first sight! Took awhile before we were even ‘just good friends’. In May of 1975 we were engaged and on July 2nd in 1976, we were married at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Ted was ordained a pastor in one of Canada’s largest denominations in May of 1975, and his first placement was in Happy Valley, Labrador (now Happy Valley-Goose Bay). There he, with his colleague, had 6 different congregations! I joined him in the manse after our wedding and lived there for his 2nd year of ministry.
From there we moved to Carnduff, Saskatchewan where we lived for 4 years with Ted pastoring 3 congregations. While there we had our first 2 sons, Colin & Graham, who were born in Estevan. In 1981 we moved to Porcupine, Ontario where he pastored 2 congregations for 8 years. While here (which was 1½ hour drive from my parents) our last two sons, Adrian & Eric, were born in Kirkland Lake.
In 1989 Ted returned to his first career of Electrical Engineering and we eventually purchased our first home in 1990 – 14 years after we were married. Ted retired in May of 2015, only to return working 1 week later, this time on contract his original Timmins boss – this time from his basement office. In his ‘spare time’ (yeah right lol) he is the secretary for the board of our local Youth Unlimited YFC Timmins chapter. On December of 2019 he, once again, retired. That lasted this time for 2 weeks. He now says he’s semi-retired.
I was a stay-at-home Mom and, with 4 boys, you can believe I was busy. Fundraising (lots of that!), volunteering (something that continues on today), taxi to Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers, Rovers, camps, T-Ball…you get the picture. Now that I am a grandmother I cannot believe how quickly those years with them at home have disappeared.
I would do the odd job from home including lots of babysitting the neighbourhood kids. (One PD Day I had 12 kids, counting my 4 boys, for the day! And over half of the kids’ names started with J.) I was the go-to Mom for the school’s “in case of emergency call’! I also worked as a District Returning Officer for various Federal & Provincial & Municipal Elections, Matron with the Timmins Police Services, and a few other odd jobs.
I continue to sing in 2 community volunteer choirs, Timmins Symphony Chorus and the Timmins Concert Singers and have enjoyed the variety – and the challenge – of both choirs
In 1997 friends from my high school days introduced us to the world of nutrition with a company called Mannatech. What got him very excited was the science already available on the subject of glycobiology.
At this point in our lives Ted had been unemployed for 5 years so Bob & Peggy thought maybe we might be interested in doing this as a home business. Although we did not know much about Direct Sales we agreed to be Associates but were basically Preferred Consumers. (In those days the product for Associates was less expensive.) But it didn’t take long for us to notice a change in our lives — especially for my husband. So, over the years, we’ve told our story and many have joined our team.
Over the years we’ve been approached by associates in other companies – all stable ones – to join their team. But we have stayed with Mannatech for many reasons, these being the main ones (not in any particular order):
1. seeing the changes in our overall health with published science backing what we can say. 2. the profits from our purchases make a difference in children’s lives. 3. being able to earn an income to help us, as seniors, stay in our own home.
Our MOTTO says it all: We are helping you to help others and yourself at the same time It is not all about me/us. It isn’t just about earning an income or improving our quality of life. It is also about helping others have HOPE and saving children’s lives.