Why me

How the heck did a kid from a very poor area in England end up with all this? I often sit with Rosalie on the beach in Mexico drinking a glass of wine and enjoying the cool breeze and say “How the hell did I get here?” What did I do to deserve this?

My Dad left home when I was eight years old and I was raised by my Mum. She had a hip operation where they pinned her hip with a steel rod so she couldn’t move it and therefore had less pain. There were no hip replacements in those days.

She did an awesome job of raising me and seeing that I was fed and clothed as we got no support from my dad. Part of the time we were on welfare but she was always looking for work. She was one of the rare women at that time, who could drive so she had a bit of an advantage. She once fell down a small flight of stairs and bent the pin in her hip, but she carried on working.

So how did I end up with a beautiful wife, a lot of good friends in a great country Canada and a great lifestyle that includes Mexico? That’s a rhetorical question because I haven’t a clue.

Growing up without a male guidance system was a problem. My three brothers had long left home to get away from our dad’s physical abuse (fortunately he left me alone.) so I didn’t have them to guide me until much later but by then they were more concerned with their own families.

Was it luck, karma, hard work or just stubbornness to survive? I don’t know, but whatever happened, here I am.

I wasn’t guided into a trade so I just worked at whatever paid well. When I came to Canada I was married with a young daughter and still no trade. Through the years I installed cable tv and eventually, I became an alarm installer. I ended up as an installation manager for Chubb Security in Toronto. Can you imagine me in a suit? I was responsible for 50 employees/subcontractors and an operating budget of 3 million dollars which was a lot for the time. How did that happen?

I’ve tried a lot of things in my life, looking to support my family. When I was 63 I went back to installing alarm systems so I could contribute. I took $10,000 off our mortgage that year.

I don’t have a million dollars but perhaps I have what a lot of people would like, contentment, enough of everything, an incredible wife, lots of good friends and a way of life that suits us both perfectly! As Rosalie loves to say, “We have more than adequate resources to meet our needs”. It’s not about money it’s about how happy you are in your life, and I am completely happy.

However, I’m still wondering how the hell I got here.