#Yearof50. Entry 16: OCAD Bound
In summer 2011, our friend and former colleague Jan Sage reached out to Mark to let me know that an opportunity with OCAD University was available in Development & Alumni Relations. It had been a very tough year, as I had been laid off from Queen’s in 2010, and then my dad died on February 26, 2011. After multiple interviews, an offer was made and we found ourselves looking for an apartment in Toronto. After saying tearful goodbyes to our chosen family in Kingston, we started a new chapter in downtown Toronto. Thankfully, our dear friends Patrick McNeill and Ray McVong had decamped from Kingston to Toronto the year before. They added to the welcome wagon and supportive net of longtime Toronto friends Dana , Toni Marvin & Dave, and Lisa Collins . And me, being the ridiculously faithful Queen’s alumnus, reached out to the then president of Queen's Toronto Alumni , Elaine Wu , to volunteer with the branch and a new friend was in our lives. What an adventure was laid in fr