Barbara Kearney Jones
It is fall 2013 as I write this.
Life is sweet and I feel blessed. My high school and university years were not always happy times for me. I struggled to overcome shyness and took a very long time to figure out what would make me happy.
It was, as they say, worth the wait.
I graduated from McGill with a degree in education and weeks later married Barry Jones, then a copywriter for a small Canadian ad agency. I taught at Rosemount High for a few years but left to have Kelly, our daughter. In 1972 we moseyed on down the 401 to Toronto for better job prospects. That would be the first of two such journeys.
I started Craft Cranny when Kelly was two and for a few years enjoyed the life of a small business entrepreneur. But it wasn’t long before we headed back to Montreal for a (hopefully) better career opportunity for Barry. I taught at Chateauguay Regional High for a time while Barry moved into ad agency management, but when the PQ came to power, the 'Anglo' advertising community collapsed.
So back down the 401 we went.
In the end, it was a good thing that we did, although the turmoil of those two years isn’t fondly remembered.
Teaching jobs weren’t available in Toronto at that time so I decided to try my hand at a third career option and went into the life insurance industry, initially as a trainer at 'The Travelers'.
When I left the Travelers to join Manulife, my responsibilities morphed into marketing, a pattern that continued with subsequent positions at Canada Life, Standard Life, and PPI. These were happy career times because I had the invigorating challenge of creating from scratch the positions I was hired for. I had the privilege of leading some very talented teams and my 30 years in the business were satisfying, rewarding and (mostly) fun.
This year I celebrated my 44th anniversary with Barry. We have giggled through most of it, sharing a love of tennis, bridge, jiving, volunteering, travel and, in the last few years, spoiling our daughter, her hubby Brent and the two perfect-in-every-way grandchildren. There has been the odd speed bump—I don’t highly recommend the experience of a double knee replacement–but I’m back on the tennis court and the hiking trails so yes, life is sweet and I feel blessed.
Since I retired a few years ago, I have had the chance to travel a lot more and to be away for longer periods of time. We have always travelled on our own, usually renting a car and following an itinerary that often changed by the hour. Last year we spent a month in Argentina and this fall we are heading to Bhutan, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. My philosophy at this point is to keep doing what we love while we’re still able. Oh, and to laugh along the way.