[Ep. 50] Immigrating to Canada & Life in Retirement with Audrey Moorhouse

For this episode, I interview my grandma Audrey, my dad’s mom. She has an incredible story, though she may disagree with me. Sometimes it’s hard to realize how much stuff you’ve accomplished and experienced when it’s your life, but that’s why I love having this podcast. Not only did my grandma immigrate from Scotland to Canada in the 1950s and start a new life with her young family in her early 20s, she was also a teacher for her entire career and was able to save enough to retire at 62.

My grandma Audrey grew up in Insch, Scotland, a village located outside the city of Aberdeen. Growing up as a woman during that time, there weren’t as many options for work as there are now, but my grandma followed her passion and had a long career as a school teacher. Both my grandmas were teachers funnily enough.

When she was in her early 20s, she got married, had my dad (Derek), and moved with her young family to Vancouver, BC, Canada. They bought a house and she was able to find a teaching job fairly quickly, two things that are near impossible nowadays. Seriously, if she had kept her house in Vancouver all this time, it would be worth millions!

After a few years in Vancouver, they moved to Terrace, BC, and my grandma continues to live there along with my aunt (my dad’s younger sister) and my two cousins. My grandma has been living the retired life for the past few decades and now spends her time gardening and painting watercolours.

She painted this lovely postcard-sized painting of the BC coast for me before I moved to Toronto, I still have it in a frame in my living room (thanks grandma!).

This episode is the first time I’ve ever heard my grandma’s story from her. Over the years I’d hear things from my dad, but one of the great things about having a podcast is it gives me a reason to sit down with people and let them share their stories with me.

I am so grateful my grandma let me interview her, and I definitely plan on interviewing a few more family members soon too!

Sometimes it’s the people closest to you who have gone through the most incredible things. Maybe this episode will inspire you to pick up the phone or email one of your family members so you can hear their story. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something!

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