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                         Name: Joan Latchford                             
                      Address: Toronto, Ontario                           
                          BBS: CRS, Toronto                               
                                                                          
   I have a small, home-based desktop publishing business. I do           
   newsletters for various organizations - a computer user group, a non   
   profit organization for the developmentally disabled, and another      
   for the performing arts. I also do theatre programs, brochures etc.,   
   etc..                                                                  
                                                                          
   While at times it is very enjoyable, I do it also to augment my old    
   age pension until my husband can draw his. This is my fourth year in   
   business and my computer skills are self-taught, with "help from my    
   friends."                                                              
                                                                          
   What I see? So many people stressed out by the recession that they     
   have almost lost the ability to be support systems for each other.     
   Of my own personal support systems and vice versa, one has succumbed   
   to Alzheimers, another has lost her unemployed husband through         
   suicide, a third is losing his much loved partner of many years to     
   AIDs.                                                                  
                                                                          
   What would I like to see? More people with hope and the conviction     
   that they can make a difference in society. Fewer people on "the       
   street", and fewer in jail.                                            
                                                                          
   Since Inez says to "brag a little", I'll mention that I worked as a    
   freelance photo journalist during the 60s and 70s, and had various     
   articles and numerous photographs published. I also did freelance      
   photography for the National Film Board Still Photos division and      
   the CBC and received two Canada Council Grants for photography.        
                                                                          
   I would like to write a couple of books, one on "conferencing"  as     
   the 20th century equivalent of the 19th century "coffee houses"        
   which stimulated so much creative and philosophical writing. Perhaps   
   an autobiography.                                                      
                                                                          
   What I've had? An interesting life. I was born in Canada but moved     
   to England when I was two. I grew up taking a great deal of            
   privilege for granted, such as a big house, grounds, a pony etc.,      
   etc.. In 1938 we moved back to Canada and during the "Battle of        
   Britain" two mothers and 8 children were evacuated to us in Canada.    
   In 1945, I became a Roman Catholic and in 1948 entered the Society     
   of the Sacred Heart and spent 7 years as a nun. In 1956 my superiors   
   said I "had a vocation" but not for that order. After that, I spent    
   a year teaching emotionally disturbed boys in Brixton (England) then   
   returned to Canada and worked as a staff trainer in a large            
   department store. I started a "drop in" at my apartment for            
   immigrants to meet English speaking people so they would overcome      
   the language barrier and be able to re-establish themselves in their   
   former professions. It grew to a group of over 3000 people of as       
   many as 16 different nationalities and that is how I met my husband.   
   This weekly "drop in" functioned for ten years every single Tuesday    
   evening. All we provided was coffee and the people brought each        
   other                                                                  
                                                                          
   In the meantime our family grew. We adopted two children, had two      
   "home grown" and adopted four more. Five of our adopted children are   
   black. As a result, I commuted (drove monthly) between Toronto and     
   Washington D.C. for four years doing Afro-American studies and         
   Anthropology at Howard University. While there I did volunteer work    
   at Lorton Penitentiary. This, and economic necessity led me to take    
   up a position in Toronto as the first Executive Director of            
   Galbraith Bail Residence, so my degree was never completed.            
   Galbraith was a pilot program funded by the Ontario Ministry of        
   Correctional Services through a citizens' board. After eight and a     
   half years of stressful but satisfying work, I was burning out, so     
   resigned and taught myself to use computers.                           
                                                                          
   What I worry about. I worry about my children. Having just lost our    
   house, I worry about not being able to keep this apartment if the      
   rent goes up. I'm a country or a downtown person and wouldn't want     
   to live in the suburbs. I don't worry about my personal safety,        
   though I have friends who are afraid to go out at night. I worry       
   about "losing my marbles" as I age or being unable to read. Basic,     
   but pretty selfish worries, I'm afraid.                                
                                                                          
   I think the thing that makes me most glad is that we are loved by      
   our children who are all supportive in their various ways. I am also   
   glad that to a large extent I have overcome the debilitating lack of   
   self-confidence which comes from having grown up without a             
   traditional education or the achievement of recognized                 
   qualifications for doing what I've had to do.                          
                                                                          
   Suggestions for new and old users: keep writing and keep listening.    
   You can do a great deal to counter the isolation which so many         
   creative and other people feel in the late 20th century.               
                                                                          
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