Doin' What Comes Naturally

	In January 1982 I was tending bar in my husband's neighbourhood

pub when a friend of his showed me an old book on bodybuilding. As I 

glanced through the book, fascinated by the black-and-white photo-

graphs of different bodybuilding poses, my husband's friend suggested

that I go along with him and a few others and start working out at the 

local community center. "Oh, no, not me," I protested. "Id be too embar-

rassed."	

	But he talked me into it and we all started lifting weights together. 

Although everyone else soon dropped out, I stuck with it. I was hooked 

on bodybuilding right from the start. Although I had always kept my 

figure trim, working out with weights made me feel as though I was

coming alive. It was as if my body had been asleep for years and I was 

waking up from the inside out.	

	Problems developed between my husband and me, and our marriage 

broke up. After the divorce, I took my two young sons and moved to 

Vancouver. I had no skills except bartending, but I knew I wanted to 

change my life. Art had always interested me and before I was mar-

ried I attended art school but never did anything with it. As much as I 

wanted to go back to school, I realized that raising two sons by myself 

would be rough financially so I found a job in an art store.