My mother, Jeanne Marie Daoust was born on June 21, 1907 in Springer Township Nipissing District the oldest child of Albert and Oliva Daoust (Delorme). She was educated in Sturgeon Falls and went to the French Normal School in Ottawa and trained as a teacher.

While teaching in Timmins in the mid 1930s she met and married Gilbert Taylor.  My father was born on June 20, 1907 in Huntsville, Ontario. He was the youngest son of Claude and Muriel Taylor (Garside). They were married in August 21,1937 and I was born the following year on September 11, 1938.  I was born in Sturgeon Falls and christened Murielle Gilberthe Taylor.

My parents had left Timmins and moved to Jellico Mines in northwestern Ontario. A few years later they moved again to the Magnet Consolidated Mines town site. My twin brothers, Robert and Gerald were born in Geraldton, Ontario on February 13, 1940. We lived in Magnet until 1948 except for a few years during the war when we lived in Geraldton and my father worked on the railroad. Gilbert my youngest brother was born in Geraldton on May 2, 1945.

When Gilbert was two we moved to Thunder Bay as the gold mines had almost all closed. My mother re-entered the teaching field when all of her children were in school.  She went to qualify as a teacher in the English panel and was one of the first teachers to teach French as a second language.  She attended Lakehead University and received a BA. During these years my father worked as an electrician for Ogilvie Flour Mills and retired from there.

Throughout her life, my mother was a camping enthusiast and over the years my parents camped all over North America. They enjoyed lapidary and would spent hours looking for semi-precious stones such as the Lake Superior Agat.  For many years, they wintered in Donna Texas; when home, my mother took great pleasure in spending time with her five grandchildren.  My mother died in Donna Texas on March 11, 1980.  My father continued to winter in Texas and died in November 1985 in Thunder Bay.

en francais!