I’ve recently celebrated a milestone in my career - 15 years of serving families. I reflect on the journey. It’s a bigger deal than you know.

I was married 17 years with three gorgeous children, and had been privileged to be a stay-at-home mom, tending to my home and family. It was very rewarding, but for almost 18 years I had been dreaming of the day that I could have a career of my own. That career was to sell real estate.

A few months after getting my license, my husband and I started the divorce process.

My world imploded. I lost the support of his family and friends, having very little backing from my own. Friends from our church fled, unsure of how to support a broken family. Neighbours no longer waved as I walked down the street. Heartbroken, I stepped into a vast pit of judgement, grief, and fear.

I barely showed up for the first Christmas after we separated. Crying, sleeping, and grieving in my bedroom was the limit of my daily activities. My children still can’t read my story about that Christmas – the broken Christmas. It was the hardest holiday I’ve ever endured but when it was over, I lifted my head out of my depression and, with trepidation, stepped toward my new life.

I was going through a divorce, becoming a single mom, starting a new career...and then I was sexually assaulted. One day, as I was putting up a for sale sign, an elderly man asked me to come evaluate his house. It was just up the street. Without hesitation I stepped into his trap. In that very moment I realized just how vulnerable I was in my new world. I was alone and felt it to my core. I missed my husband and friend, the one who would defend my honour and protect me from the evil things of this world. I felt forsaken, frail, naked. A second near-miss would happen one year later.

It was the undoing, the final nail, the last straw. It broke me. I found myself on my knees in prayer, facing my grief, my sense of loss, feeling alone and embracing an uncertain future.

I left my children with their father and journeyed to find myself in my fatigue. I sat on a bed in a log cabin where I mourned and slept, bathed and journaled for days. Hours of quiet, sitting in my pain, processing my thoughts, purging my agony, praying my prayers, feeling my emotions. And, forgiving myself. That sabbatical lasted seven days, then I came home to start again.

Starting over is challenging. Starting a new career at the same time – undeniably impossible. 

Fifteen years ago, at the beginning of my career, I was cleaning houses and retail stores to make my mortgage payment, and I poured myself into my career. Hours of extra training, sitting at the feet of those who had perfected their craft. Open houses every weekend, classes three days a week, showing houses to anyone who would let me…while cleaning homes in the morning and stores in the evening. 

I embraced my farm girl roots and worked hard, often at the sacrifice of my children. They are the true heroes in this story. Caring for themselves while I worked evenings and weekends. Waiting for me to just…come…home and tend to their broken hearts as their family transformed. Fighting to forge ahead in my new life, I left them alone too often. I have been working to make up for that ever since.

My second husband came into my life when I was at my most vulnerable. Afraid of judgement from others, being alone again, or even disappointing him, I agreed to marry him. It was abusive, and toxic, and it would be brief. Yet, it became the making of me. In his attempt to shred me of my dignity and my finances, I learned to stand up for myself, to fight like a champion. It birthed a passion in me to fend for other families going through divorce.

Healing came and eventually I felt whole again. Hugs from my children, snuggles from my trusted dog, support from my new tribe, nuzzles from a favourite mare. Accepted and forgiven, I soldiered on to become who I was destined to be.

In all the years of slugging it out, I only considered quitting once. I was four years into my career and wasn’t finding work. Desperate, I started looking for a job when an opportunity to work at RE/MAX was presented to me. I grabbed that lifeline and within three months I was the seventh most productive agent in the office. RE/MAX saved my dream.

In these last 15 years, I’ve been a team leader, a real estate trainer, a landlord, owned my own brokerage, and survived two divorces. I have sold over 250 homes, and have given out more than 300 Thanksgiving pies. I’ve completed training as a Certified Divorce Real Estate Expert™, and most recently, received education in Interdisciplinary Collaborative Divorce training.

I’m most proud that I am now living my best life with my best friend and husband. Together we serve our local church, and started our project known as The Lily Pads - a furnished place for families who are between homes because of divorce or waiting on a new home to be built. We are grandparents to eight handsome grandsons and our one (finally!!) breathtaking granddaughter.

The journey has been nothing short of profound, and I look forward to serving my clients for another 15 years. To celebrate, I had ice cream.