Marie Whelan (Radvak)

I married for the second time almost 10 years ago. Blair had three children and I had three children, all between the ages of 5 and 13. Now we have one at UBC, one at SFU, one at UVic, two at Cap College and one in high school. I work as CFO for one technology company full-time, and on a consulting basis as CFO to several other technology companies, including one that my husband founded with a partner. I used to think that when the kids graduated from high school I would be financially and emotionally independent from them - I was even sad at the thought! But that was an assumption which proved to be false. I love having them around as much as possible, and they are all wonderful people, but they continue to suck me dry :-) financially and emotionally,and will continue to do so until they graduate from university/college and get real lives and careers. Or maybe that is also a delusion that I cling to? So I continue to dream about the great European adventure but I'm not even in the planning stage yet. Life at home is still the great adventure.Sometimes I am thrown a little by the fact that we are old enough to be contemplating a 30th high school reunion - how can that be? Two of my sons partied last year in S16 Gage Towers at UBC - the same quad I used to live in, and the same quad where I met their father. How can that be? I keep telling myself how lucky I am to have had the last 30 years, but I pray that the next 30 years go by more slowly! Life is great. I try not to take for granted my good fortune in that my parents, husband and children are all healthy, we have a great house in North Van, and we even have the cutest dog in the world.