Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – From Me!

Oct 5, 2006

Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – From Me!

Oct 5, 2006

100 Things to Know About Me

Carol Roach

1. I grew up with my grandmother on my father’s side. My mother and father were never married and my father took me home to his mother.

2. My mother had decided to put me up for adoption until my grandmother stepped in and came to my rescue.

3. We were dirt poor and my grandmother could not get any social aid because I did not belong to her. The welfare told her to give me back to one of my parents and then they would help her. She refused. She took in washing and ironing and babies to try and make ends meet.

4. I had two sisters born after me that I hardly ever saw; they lived in two separate homes.

5. My mother would come and take me to her home for a visit now and then but I hated it. I hardly knew her.

6. My mom would promise me things and then not deliver, from that experience in early childhood I learned to think negatively. It was easier to accept that nothing good would happen than to wish for good things that never happened.

7. I never had any friends as a young child. Up until the age of five, I was not allowed out of my grandmother’s sight.

8. Elementary school proved to be very traumatic; I did not know how to socialize.

9. I was always fat and the kids at school shunned me, they wouldn’t play with me and they called me names.

10. I became introverted, I played alone most of the time and my dogs became my constant companions.

11. Since I was always in the company of older people, I became very mature for my young age. 12. I was always a very sensitive child and cried at the drop of a hat.

13. I wanted friends so desperately but it seemed that every time I had friends it was a threesome and I was the odd man out.

14. At the age of nine, I decided that I would write a book about all my failed friendships and the hurt that went with them.

15. I wrote Picking Up the Pieces: A Woman’s Journey in 2004, it included those stories and many others.

16. Since I was always fat, I did not have a very good dating experience as a teenager and I was very unhappy.

17. I hated my childhood and teenage years.

18. I grew to be a person who did not have many friends, but I was a wonderful friend to those I had.

19. My grandmother always had dogs, and birds. To this day I still love dogs, but I really do not care that much for the cackle of birds.

20. I love to watch birds in the wild. I believe they are a testament of God’s magnificent artistry. I just don’t want birds in my home.

21. I am the oldest of three daughters, my sister Linda is the middle sister married with three children and a grandmother, my youngest sister Joyce passed away in January 2006. She too was a mother of three and a grandmother.

22. I am a mother and a grandmother of one little boy. Tyler my grandson is 10 years old.

23. I fell deeply in love at the age of 16. Wendell was 24. The relationship broke up after eight months. I cried myself to sleep for four years after that.

24. From the age of 16 – 20, I refused to look at another boy. No one could even come close to my Wendell.

25. At one time my best friend, was the step mother of my best friend who left Montreal to go back to Nova Scotia.

26. At sixteen, Joanne the step mother used me as her therapist. She said I was so wise. She told me not long ago that she would not have made it through those years without me. I was her only source of support, and I brought sanity to her chaotic world.

27. I was always the champion of the underdog and I befriended people who were mentally unstable, the people who lived on the fringe of society.

28. I always loved to write. My first story was published on the school bulletin board when I was eleven years old. It was a story of meeting my dream actress in person – Lucille Ball.

29. Today I have written over 300 short stories, published a book, and I have another manuscript completed. I have published in magazines and anthologies. I am a columnist for a few small online newspapers and I am the publisher of my own newsletter Storytime Tapestry.

30. I was an average student in high school but blossomed when I entered CEGEP.

31. I picked a course called general psychology, I didn’t even know what it was but I loved it. I knew that I had finally found my niche. What ever I did in life I would have to use psychology.

32. I enjoy studying the workings of the brain. I find it fascinating. I particularly find how several people can experience the same neutral event and each will react in a different way towards that event is totally wonderful.

33. My mother and sisters are French Canadian, I am English Canadian. I was raised English by my English grandmother. I have very little in common with my mother and surviving sister. They are Roman Catholic and I am Protestant. We don’t even eat the same kinds of food. Our lifestyles are very different.

34. My son was 30 years old on September 17. He is a Virgo

35. I am a Pisces – I was born on March 6

36. I was attracted to my future husband because he reminded me of Wendell, otherwise I probably would never have dated him either.

37. We were married on April 3, 1976 and we divorced in July 1981.

38. I was a single parent for almost all of my son’s life.

39. I dated a man who mentally abused me a year after I divorced my husband. We never lived together but I was with him on an on and off basis for 12 years. He told me I couldn’t do anything right. I believed him. Then one day I woke up.

40. My son was a problem child and then a juvenile delinquent. I had a hard time finding boyfriends after John. Either men were not attracted to me (told me so) because of my weight or they were turned off by my son’s behaviour. Either way I was alone for 23 years.

41. My husband was schizophrenic, we were always afraid that my son would inherit the disease. My son still has problems today.

42. I had a hard time raising my son alone, we were poor and I ran after every resource I could find to get him professional help.

43. I was very lonely the years my son was growing up. My family was not very supportive.

44. My father lived with my grandmother (his mother) and I until I was five years old. He married another woman – not my mother and then moved out.

45. He came back once when I was nine. He was drunk and announced I was not his “f---ing kid anyhow.” My whole life fell apart then. I suddenly realized that I really had no biological family. The woman I loved more than life itself was not my biological grandmother. I may as well have been an orphan. And I understood the true meaning of the word rejection.

46. I vowed I would never have my children grow up without a father, and then I became a single parent and did the same thing to my son as had been done to me. I could not forgive myself even though it was really not my fault. Mental illness is something that we do not control or wish away that easily.

47. I started to work when I was 17, I did not have the luxury of going on to college. We were poor and my grandmother needed the income.

48. I worked for three months in a factory. Then I got a job as a filing clerk in an insurance company in 1972. I worked there until 1981. By that time I was divorced and still a clerk, and head of a small department.

49. Up until I got married I was extremely shy; having maybe one or two good friends.

50. I was pregnant when I got married. I worked all day and went to school at night. When the baby came I had to give up school or else I would never have seen my son.

51. I always enjoyed learning new things. I never forgot about my love for psychology.

52. I have been a volunteer all of my life. I volunteered as lunch mother, library assistant, and PTA and secretary for the Parents group at my son’s school.

53. I have served on the board of directors in every position from telephone sales person to membership director, activities director, to president of a chapter of a single parent association.

54. I enjoy playing scrabble and played with an actual intermediate champion winner here in Montreal for years.

55. I have never been good with crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles and lose patience trying to do them.

56. I lose patience with anything that requires using my hands, like knitting etc.

57. I can be very clumsy.

58. Plants die around me. I don’t have a green thumb. I am all thumbs.

59. I have always had trouble with numbers. I can make mistakes counting.

60. I worked at several places after the insurance company but kept losing my job due to companies closing down.

61. I decided to go back to university at the age of 37.

62. I have bachelors in psychology and masters in counseling psychology.

63. I took a year of family life education as well.

64. I enjoy psychology, religion, sociology, anthropology, mostly anything to do with people.

65. I am no longer introverted; I am a people person though quiet. I once thought I could not live without people around me. Now that I have my internet connection I always have people around me.

66. I rediscovered my desire to write because of the internet. I also found out that I have learning disabilities in the area of numbers – dyscalculia, and reading dyslexia.

67. I make mistakes when I write and I do not see my errors. Despite all of that I am proud that I have accomplished as much as I have.

68. When I was 27, I had a palm reader read my palms. He said I had a special gift, yet he did not know what it was.

69. Now as a middle aged woman I know that I am an empath. I feel things and I sometimes know the future, but not very often and for very insignificant things.

70. I have prophetic dreams. If you want to know more about that read my stories in the archives of Storytime Tapestry, Pearlsoup and Gather.com

71. I am known as the cat lady. This time last year I had eight cats. Today I have three.

72. I find I relate better with adults than with children. When we were little, my mother would say that my sister Linda would run an orphanage when she grew up and I would run an animal shelter. That pretty much summed up our personalities.

73. I have worked as a clerk, secretary, telemarketer, and customer service rep. I also sold Avon and Tupper Ware.

74. I enjoy learning about the various religions of the world.

75. I met my current boyfriend six years ago. He is Jewish and I am Christian.

76. I attend synagogue with him and enjoy learning about the Jewish faith and Jewish mysticism; Kabbalah and Zohar.

77. My favourite outing is dinner and a movie.

78. My favourite films are horror classics and psychological dramas. My favourite movie of all time is Imitation of life.

79. My favourite psychologists/psychiatrists – Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, Viktor Frankl, Steven DeShazer (not sure of the spelling – from the Palo Alto centre in California).

80. Favourite authors: Somerset Maugham, Charles Dickens, the Brontes, John Steinbeck.

81. Favourite music: soul, rhythm and blues, soft pop. I never acquired the taste for classic though.

82. Favourite foods are: Indian curries, steak and baked potato, cheese cake and apple pie.

83. I like to cook but I am a terrible housekeeper.

84. I never learned to ride a bike, drive a car or skate. I am fearful of not being on solid ground.

85. If I could live my life over again I would not have married who I did, I would have waited instead of feeling threatened because my younger sister married before I did.

86. I was always a person who craved security and now I am learning to let go and set my spirit free.

87. I am starting to look into the ancient wisdom of the universe, follow the law of attraction, and ask the universe for what I want.

88. I have always been a giver, now I am learning to take what I want from this life.

89. I am not fearful of the future like I once was.

90. I used to adhere to the concept of dharma, ones duty in life, and now I am starting to feel that I can shape my own life.

91. I want to continue to write and create for the enjoyment of myself and others.

92. I believe in the concept of living and let live. I try not to judge others according to my beliefs and standards.

93. I am still the champion of the underdog.

94. At one time I use to hate how I am, now I love who I am.

95. I am a forgiving person.

96. My integrity is most important to me, far more important than monetary gain or status.

97. I speak English, French and Hebrew.

98. I have diabetes, I am arthritic and perimenopausal, but I am still kicking.

99. I have overcome many challenges in life and my spirit will never die.

100. My plans for the future are to write, write, write, travel, and perhaps win the lottery and I will have all that need and want. My greatest asset is the love I have from family and friends. I do not need anything more.

Carol Roach

winterose@videotron.ca

A Native of Montreal, Quebec, Carol is a graduate of Concordia, and McGill University.  She holds a bachelor in psychology and a Masters in counselling psychology.  Carol Roach is a published writer and newsletter editor.  You can purchase her book: Picking up the Pieces: A Woman's Journey at www.publishamerica.com, or www.amazon.com.  You can also go to your local bookstore and order it there as well.  Be sure to quote the isbn number: 1-4137-1921-X for local purchases:  Carol’s second book: Angels Watching Over is currently looking for a home. Stay tuned for details. 

If you are interested in other stories feel free to join her newsletter: Storytime Tapestry at: http://subs.zinester.com/98907 , or email her directly at winterose@videotron.ca and she will be glad to accommodate you.  Carol enjoys email and responds to every inquiry.