Joy Brooks:  

Some of you realized that in elementary and junior high school times that at times I appeared "scared". Well, that was because half the time I was! My father was violent when he'd been drinking. Nonethless, I carried on and made friends. Sadly, I haven't done a good job in keeping in touch with most of the people who I can still picture in my mind. I always felt I had to do better and better. As a result, I took about 5 years post college correspondence courses in health care. Through the years, I went from a medical steno to an Assistant Director of Medical Records, then Director of Medical Records and finally, Administrator of a small nursing home in Saskatchewan. In the middle of all that, I met the love of my life, Alexander James Brooks, an addictions counsellor. We met June 19th, 1982 and married January 8, 1983. I believe it was about our 15th anniversary when I heard that this was Elvis Presley's birthday and thought - good GAWD, do people think we got married on that date because it was Elvis's birthday? After marrying, we moved to Regina. After working in health care, I thought - I'm going to LEAVE health care. I got a temporary job working for General Motors Acceptance Corporation and had four glorious years processing dealers' inventories and finance contracts. Then they moved the office to Edmonton. One of the car dealerships asked me to come work for them, so I did. They wanted me in the Business Office (selling the "snake oil"), so I only sold vehicles for 6 months, then went on to the business office. After 13 years in the car business, I wanted back in health care. I got on with the Regina Health Region in 2000, retiring May 1, 2012. The motivating factor for this was that on December 6, 2011, when I got home from work, Alex said he had "gas". We had a short visit, then I asked him if he wanted me to put together ...Expand for more