Eileen

Eileen was born in 1936. She lives in a condo with second husband Ronald. They blended their families years ago; together they have many grandchildren. Eileen’s first marriage ended when her husband finished his education in Winnipeg. She has four daughters. Ron, her second husband, two sons.  Ron will turn 90 when Eileen’s daughter, Rene, arrives from Australia. Rene and Eileen planned a trip to Florence, Italy: number one on Eileen’s bucket list.
Looking back, Eileen expresses frustration with damage people do to others. Powerful people with wrong motivations hurt people. Eileen’s life shows she values relationships and cherishes love and support from Ron and family. She speaks with her daughters every week on Zoom .
At 19, Eileen became Director of Music at Crease Clinic in Vancouver which specialized in innovative treatments for the mentally ill. She researched music therapy for mentally ill patients; with a musical background her work at the clinic into a wonderful experience she considers fortunate to have experienced, admitting some successes and some very sad outcomes among patients.
Today, she sings in her church choir, although she declares she can’t sing anymore. She recently overcame performance anxiety delivering a sermon about change. Thinking she wouldn’t be given another opportunity to speak in public, she put all her energy into delivering her sermon and did not experience anxiety. She also received praise for her sermon.
Eileen is a good role model for her daughters but is not as educated as she’d like.  She thrived in the workplace working only when required to earn a living. She wrote for television and was an assistant producer.
Women’s work in the 1960’s was challenging with few good jobs for women. She worked for City of Edmonton for seven years, then at CBC, CTV, CFCN and ITV on contract basis. She liked work but because men were always her boss, when one left, she had to teach his replacement his job. She was not paid well.
She researched for a neurologist at U of A hospital writing a book on intercranial aneurisms. She did literature reviews with no computer to organize data, working with three researchers they completed 8000 citations. Ironically, this work gave her understanding of aneurism when she collapsed on a BC beach at 62. At Victoria Hospital, a surgeon explained she’d suffered an intercranial aneurism requiring surgery with a 15% chance of survival and likelihood of long-term problems. She recovered with almost full capacity.
Full of gratitude to be alive, she takes nothing for granted.