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Lara's parents on their honeymoon
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Essays - Lara's Parents
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Lara's Mom, Sharie St. John, has had a varied and eventful way of making ends meet throughout the years. She worked long ago as a waitress in Banff, has worked for Bell Canada (around when she saw the movie Dr. Zhivago - thus creating my given name), was a busy mom for a while, worked at a video store and at an orchestra office, and some years ago went out and got her A to Z license and became a truck driver. She has driven countless miles in a big orange semi (18 wheeler) for Schneider of Canada. A few years ago she stopped trucking, finding that a couple of years on the road was enough. She then ended up with lots of little violin students whom she played some piano for and coached, rather successfully in fact. ( I might add at this point that my mother cannot play the violin at all - and only took a few piano lessons till the age of 16). (I guess she has good instinct).
In the past year she has become the oldest first-year student at the University of Western Ontario, in their music program. (!) She decided to go back to school to find out; "better late than never, what this is all about, and what my kids are talking about all the time".
She is getting almost straight As, is working hard, enjoying herself, and we are very proud of her.
Lara's Dad, Ken St. John, died on December 22, 1990. Very recently my brother and I held a 10th Anniversary memorial for him in the gym at Medway High School, where he was a French and Spanish teacher and a basketball coach.
In his youth he used to support himself for the school year by prining
tobacco in the summers (a very difficult job). He also travelled frequently to Mexico, France, and of course Quebec for his language interests. Since he was perfectly bilingual, and eventually trilingual with Spanish, it was very important to him that we grow up bilingual also. He was once hoping for his own St John basketball team, but when I came along I guess his hopes were a bit foiled, me being a girl. (even though I am nearly six feet tall).
He had many many friends and students who loved him, and over 200 of those showed up on December 22, 2000, despite the outside temperature of minus 40 degrees.
Our dad was a great guy and we will never forget him.
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