Stella ‘Mom’ McLachlan

Road Trip from Montreal to the Maritimes - Sailing on the Bluenose

Season 2, Episode 19 - It’ll all work out

My mom was a homemaker turned entrepreneur after she was divorced and became a single mother just before my last year of high school. It was 1983. She went back to school for Business Administration after being out of the workforce for about 20 years. While looking for work after graduation, she ended up buying a small business, a craft store, in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.

She’s now retired and living close to her grandchildren in the suburbs of Montreal. At 65, she sold everything and moved to Québec from Alberta. That’s another story of courage driving across Canada with my brother, arriving 3 days before my nephew was born.

When I reflected on who around me had modeled courage, I thought of my mother.

Thanks to my younger brother Lyle and older sister Laura for filling in a few gaps in these stories, and to fellow podcaster Carole Blueweiss for interviewing me.

If you listen right to the end, you’ll hear “The banana story”.

Once again, mom was right, “It all worked out.”