Diana James is the oldest of 7 children. Because she was born the oldest of a large family, and both of her parents worked, she became her siblings primary caregiver. She has told her children many stories of how she was a child-parent taking care of all of her brothers and sisters, the two youngest were twins, and born with disabilities.
In her early adult years, she married and she went on to have 2 children of her own, Megan and Matthew. She ended up divorcing their biological father in 1993 due to years of abuse and distress. A year later, she met and became engaged to the love of her life Jim. Sadly life threw her a curve ball when Jim was tragically murdered, suspected to be by the hands of her ex-husband.
The passion and love she had for people with disabilities drove her to become a job coach to those with disabilities and she took extreme pride and joy in her work. However, when she became a single parent receiving no child support, she had to dig a little deeper. She went back to school and learned Microsoft Office and computer applications and completely reinvented herself. She eventually applied for a job with The City of Vancouver and was hired. She worked for the city for many years before her retirement due to medical issues just 7 years ago.
Diana has always been a hard working Mom, who picked up many side hustles including cleaning a concrete pumping office and a dentist office for many years as her children were growing up. She taught her children a strong work ethic, as both attended these secondary jobs to help clean those places as well, even when her children were into adulthood.
She is a fighter, and a survivor, as that is all she has ever known, but she is also one of the most kindest and loving people. She is the first one to give away money to someone that needs it, or step up to help someone else in need…likely because she remembers how hard those years were for her.
Life has never been easy for her but it also hasn’t hardened her personality, or stifled her laugh, or the love she has for her family and friends. Her absolute joy in life is being a grandmother to her two granddaughters. They have put a little pep in her step and she never wasted an opportunity to spend the day with them or to buy them a new outfit.
We can’t wait to get her back home with her family!