I was born Peggy (Margaret) Hilton in Toronto, Ontario, a first generation Canadian. When I was 3 my Dad died leaving my Mom with three children aged 3 -12 years old. To make ends meet she took up office work and also took in boarders – Royal Canadian Navy personnel from the local base in Downsview. Soon she fell in love with one of the Sailors and they were married when I was 6.

Dad was immediately transferred to Nova Scotia. His specialty saw him stay at the same base for 21 years, ending his last 2 years, at his request, back at the Downsview base.

Staying in the same place for over 20 years gave me roots and a fair amount of stability. I attended grades 1- 8 in Dartmouth. I enjoyed my grades 2 – 4 but grades 5 to 8 were mostly a rough time for me.

Life outside school consisted of church activities, Explorers, CGIT, and Girl Guides. Every summer from the age of 9 to 16 I was at summer camp. At 17 I was the counsellor to some of my previous co-campers. They remembered the pranks I had taught them and enjoyed payback!

My life changed in grade 9 when I enrolled in a Christian boarding school at the former Royal Air Force Base (built to train British pilots during WW II) at Caronport, Saskatchewan. All the buildings on campus were from WW II era & I lived in the old H-shaped barracks which had been converted into dorms. I lived there for 4 wonderful years. Post grad I returned to Dartmouth where I attended 1 year at St. Mary’s University and1 at Dalhousie University.

Not wanting to continue my studies I used my privilege of being the dependent of a military person and flew to London, England, for 1$ (box lunch). Because my birth Dad was born in England I did not need a work permit. So I spent a wonderful 1½ years living and working in London. To date I am still in contact with my former flatmates.

I returned home and met Ted, an electrical engineer who was then a student of theology. We were married a year after his ordination and spent our first year together in Happy Valley, Labrador. His work took us to the SE Saskatchewan were we had 2 sons. Four years later we moved to NE Ontario (Porcupine) where we had 2 more sons. After 15 years in the ministry my husband returned to engineering and is still working – now from home.

During the growing up years of our sons I was involved in the Boy Scouts of Canada program and all 4 boys are alumni of that. Between that and school I spent many an hour doing volunteer work – fundraising for trips, etc. Our boys are now grown up, two are married and one has 3 children, and the other two have, sadly, died.

I keep myself busy singing in 2 local community choirs. I am their favourite female tenor. (Okay, I am the only female tenor but saying that ruins the story lol.) I am also busy all year, mainly in the March-April time, filing income tax returns for Revenue Canada. This is done through a volunteer organization so it is free to those with low income. I’ve done that now for 30 years. Right now I am in the middle of coordinating the annual shoe box campaign called Operation Christmas Child.

Twenty seven years ago we were invited to join an MLM company in health and wellness field. We had never been in an MLM company before so words like downline, binary, legs, etc. were ‘foreign’ to us. For the first 25 or so years we were mostly customers. With me wanting to build our Affiliate and MLM businesses, my husband, a Mark J alumnus, encouraged me to take the MKE training to help in my own personal development. So here I am.

~ Peggy from Porcupine