Hi there folks, and welcome.
I was born in 1946, the first child of my parents, and altogether the eldest of three of us, as I have two brothers. I was born in the February of that year, and my Father was stationed in France, so was not around when I was born, so to commemorate him being in France, and my Mother and Father being married in the month of April...I got the name Avril Joy, meaning April Joy.
I had two brothers growing up, one just a year younger, and one fourteen years younger, so I was the only girl. I had a normal childhood, as childhoods went in England right after the war, and the family was settled in Nottingham, Robin Hood country, a beautiful countryside location right in the Midlands. My early formative years were spent just watching and admiring a lot of people, and I find that now, and for most of my life that one person was a big influence on my thoughts in later years, and even today. Also my dreams, aspirations, and how I dealt with the world, and the people in it, and that person was my maternal Grandmother. A wonderful lady, a great lady in my eyes, and one that although I was only ten years old when she passed on, I have carried her in my heart and my mind since then, as she obviously left a very big impression on me, and at a very young age.
I went to nursery school at age four, Glenbrook infants school until seven, and Glenbrook junior girls school till eleven, and the rest of my schooling was done at Glaisdale Secondary Modern school, in the grammar stream at that time... a mixed school, and so that is probably the time that I started to recognise 'boys'...although being somewhat of a tomboy myself, in those days they were just that, 'boys', just half of the population that was also inhabiting my world, so no big deal.
When I left school, I did a number of jobs, but it was not until I fell into a job with the R.S.P.C.A. that I knew where I had to be, and there was no iffs...ands...or buts. to that question, I had found what I was meant to do, work with the animals.
Around eighteen years of age, I got the 'wander lust', as my dad used to call it, and so I began travelling to different jobs around England, and it was at this same time that my mother decided that we should all move to Canada, and I got caught up in this wirlwind of emotions. At the time, I had been going with a boy very seriously for a while, and getting engaged was the next inevitable step, but unfortunately my mother did not agree with this, so I, being under twenty one was whisked off to Canada with the rest of my family.
I was transplanted like a flower in concrete, and I did not thrive, as I just wanted to return, and be with the boy I had left behind, as it was only then that I realised that he was 'the one true love of my life'. But...and I am talking to the ladies here...if you have seen the movie 'The Notebook'...then you will know what I am going to say here, yes, my mother hid the letters too, for a whole year, so that story mirrored my own life, but unlike the people in the movie, we did not end up together in the end.
I actually met a guy over here in Canada, and was married within a year, which you do realise later on in life, that is way too fast, but at twenty one you think you know it all, and nobody can tell you anything, as we all just forge ahead and do what we want anyway.
I was no different to anybody else, so I found myself in a marriage which was abusive in many ways, both physically, and emotionally, but by this time...babies had started to come into the picture, one each year actually, in fact I became somewhat of an assembly line...l.o.l.
Don't get me wrong here, I loved my children, all five of them, and I still do, but they were hard years, very hard years indeed, and I did a lot of my growing up in those years, and getting smarter, or so I would like to think.
After spending a number of times in Womens' shelters for protection for both myself and my children, I finally, after twenty three years of marriage, called it quits, and have been very happily divorced now for eighteen years, and yes my friends...there is life after divorce!!!
I now live with my dog Clancy, a cross lab/shepherd mix, who is now two years old, so a precosious teenager if you use dog years. I had another dog for sixteen years up until a year ago January, and she was my little Angel baby, her name was Elsa, an she was a American Eskimo breed. She helped me through the good times, and the bad, and I feel she is still at my side, but I know that she will be forever in my heart. But let's just say that Clancy, has got some mighty fine shoes to fill, by following after her.
I have my five children, three girls and two boys, who are very much in my life always, and of course life going on as it does...I am also blessed with five grandchildren, three girls and two boys, who are big lights in my life right now.
After spending twenty one years just living with my animals, I have just last year been in touch with a boy I went to school with as a teenager, he was a year or so older than myself in Glaisdale Secondary Modern, and actually we dated for awhile at that tender young age, but after school we lost touch with each other as I went my way, and he joined the Royal Navy.
He came onboard at Boomer Beat as co moderator with myself last year, 2009, and we caught up with everything again, even though at this time he was in England, and I was in Canada. As of last year in May, we had been in touch, and it was all very platonic, old pals and school chums and all that, but... In December of last year he decided he wanted to come to Canada, so he came and stayed with me.
It had become very reaistic the relationship was just not platonic anymore, so we have been living together ever since then. In March of this year he asked me to marry him and we got engaged. No immediate plans for marriage right now as Immigration is taking a front seat,a lot o things need sorting out..... so we shall have to update about that part later on, but in speaking for myself I am very happy with David.
One thing I will say now in my life is the phrase...'Never say Never' friends, as we are never too old. My thoughts of anything such as this happening at the age of sixty four were gone I thought, for good, but................... "NO, WE SHOULD NEVER EVER SAY NEVER"
So, in closing, I would just like to say...As far as the 'Baby Boomer' generation is concerned, yes I am one of them, very proud to be one I might add. I think it is the best generation to have been born ever, as there was so many changes for us all in this generation, mostly beneficial, some crucial, some even laughable, but generally speaking, it is a generation of people that are 'survivors'...and 'realists'. But one thing that I think we all have in common, is the fact that we were here through it all, and we LIVED IT!!!!! Oh boy...did we LIVE IT!!!!! And evidently, iff my life is anything to go by.....YES, WE STILL ARE.
Georgygirl...a.k.a.....Avril