Barbara Godin is a graduate of Athabasca University. She writes the “”Dear Barb” and the “Women of Interest” columns. As well, Barb has written many personal interest stories and enjoys connecting with others through her writing. She has been writing for The Voice since 2003.
If you enjoy reading Dear Barb, you can also purchase her curated collection, Dear Barb: Answers to Everyday Questions at her website, http://www.barbgodin.com.
Dear Barb: My wife and I recently divorced. We had been married for ten years and have one daughter who is fourteen years old. My wife has had addiction problems throughout our marriage. She comes from a family where addiction and substance abuse problems are rampant. Eventually it became too much for me, so my… Read more »
Dr. Dormer Ellis was born on November 22, 1925. In 1984 Ellis became the first women to receive the Ontario Professional Engineers Citizenship Award. As a youth she worked at Woolworth Store as a cashier and could readily calculate the change for purchases before the time of cash registers. When she told her high school… Read more »
Dear Barb: My husband and I have been married four years and it is mostly going well. Problems arise when I try to talk to him about things he doesn’t want to talk about. Sometimes he will give me a short answer and claim he doesn’t have anything else to say. If I try to… Read more »
Elizabeth Barrett, (– 1888) became the first professional teacher in Alberta, as a result Elizabeth Barrett Elementary School in Cochrane Albert, was established. Elizabeth’s goal always was to become a teacher. Following graduation from Teacher’s College she began teaching for a short time in Ontario then decided to go to the Canadian Northwest where they… Read more »
Dear Barb: My husband and I dated three years before marrying. We have been married four years now. Our life is very happy. After a lot of soul searching and talking, we both decided we do not want to have children. Not that we don’t like children, as we both have nieces and nephews that… Read more »
I lifted my head; the silence was deafening, interrupted only by the sound of Mary moaning from somewhere behind me. Everything was dark and cold, and all I could smell was gasoline. I pulled myself out through the windshield of the car and went to the driver’s side. Rick was lying still and I could… Read more »
Dear Barb: For quite a while I have been watching the American political election and I can’t believe the popularity of Donald Trump. I think he is a bully who is inciting hatred and racism! Why are the American people attracted to him? On social media I have seen the comparisons between Donald Trump and… Read more »
Dear Barb: I am the mother of an adult son who has addiction problems. My husband and I have bailed him out of jail many times for drunken behaviour, among other things. He can’t hold a job and is unable to pay his rent most of the time, so we pay it for him because… Read more »
Margaret Lally “Ma” Murray was born in Kansas in 1888 and died September 25, 1982. Margaret came to Canada in search of a cowboy to marry; instead she met and married newspaper publisher George Murray. Margaret joined George as co-editor and publisher of a number of popular publications including The Chinook in Vancouver, B.C., The… Read more »
Dear Barb: Hi, I am a single mother who is working toward my degree at AU, but it is slow going since I can’t afford to take more than one course at a time. My daughter is five years old and we have been living alone since her father left three years ago. Back then… Read more »