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~ DIANA SUSANNE ~

Margot with Diana

Margot with Diana

Diana: The name of the Roman goddess of the moon, the hunt, forests, and childbirth.

Susanne: the Hebrew root is the lily, שושן, and is derived from the root שוש or ששנ, meaning “to be joyful, bright, or cheerful”

Diana was born in Quebec, Canada just before 7am on a winter’s day in February 1963. It was a quick and easy delivery for her mother.

Diana learned to walk early. When her brother came along, she reverted back to crawling and would climb into her brother’s crib to pinch him!

As a small child, Diana was quiet and shy, preferring animals to people. She believed with all her heart that she could communicate with animals and did not fear them. Although Diana’s family struggled to make ends meet, she would never lack for anything and it wouldn’t occur to her until much later that for years they had lived paycheck-to-paycheck.

Once while visiting relatives in Germany with her family, a very young Diana went out with her uncle to buy a Birthday card for her Dad. Her uncle watched with a mix of amusement and astonishment as she compared a card she could afford with another that she preferred, but could not afford. In the end she switched the price tags and purchased the one she wanted at the price she could afford.

Diana grew up with angst during the cold war and was convinced she would not live to be 18. Getting mixed up with the ‘Cool Crowd’ she smoked, drank and experimented with drugs early in her teens. These were tough years for her family, her relationship with her mother was especially strained.

At 20 years of age, Diana moved out west with her boyfriend to help his sister build a log house. This move across the country was the event that would turn her life around. It was a chance for a brand new start and she grabbed onto it with both hands.

Later she would move to Calgary and meet the father of her children. In 1992, she delivered a still-born son and three months later Diana was pregnant again with Michaela. In the sixth month of pregnancy, the father of the baby ended their relationship. It was a devastating blow but the life within her gave her purpose and she resolved to do whatever she had to, to care for her child.

Many years later, Diana would take two consecutive tropical trips with her mother. On one of the trips, Margot shared about a book she was reading; it talked about family history repeating itself. Even in relation to the way that families pose for photographs; seemingly similar from generation to generation. These trips would open the floodgates of understanding and an adult friendship would blossom between them.

Diana is an eternal optimist, always looking for what is good in people and situations. A champion for the underdog, she is most easily angered when she perceives an injustice has been committed. Diana believes in community working together by using their individual gifts for the common good. She is a dreamer, perhaps a little too much of a dreamer, at times to the chagrin of pragmatists.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Related posts:

Our Families and Why We Are the Way We Are

Four Generations of Women – Part 1