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Tom's Life Story
Start | Military | Salvation | Hockey | Youth Leader | Calgary | SAIT | Wedding | Wife's Testimony


I should start with my Mom - Margo Body (nee Csiky).  She escaped from Hungary in 1956 during the Hungarian revolution when the little country of Hungary tried to oust the Russians...unfortunately the Russians rolled in with tanks and there were a lot of people who got killed all the while Britain and the United States were too afraid to get involved with Russia again...and change history for the worse.

mom and I by the Frazer River in Vancouver
My favorite picture of my mom and I
by the Frazer River in Vancouver, BC.

Mom escaped with only the clothes she was wearing. As a refugee, she was sent to Canada, and eventually ended up in the interior of British Columbia taking odd jobs, all the while having to learn English, and had no relatives over here for support.

She waitresses for a bit, and the only way she got food was to eat sometimes was what was left over from the plates.

She met my dad (Robert Angus McLaughlin) and a short time later I was born June 7 in Chilliwack, BC. About an hour outside of Vancouver, BC. In little as 8 months after I was born my parents separated but that's another story.

Update: The most amazing thing happened in September '98...my father phoned me!  Seems my wife Bev wanted me to have peace between him and I and was able to contact him and asked if he wanted to call me. We had a good chat. It was interesting to get his side of the story, albeit 40 years later. We are in contact now and sending pictures to each other. It will take a bit of time to recoup all the years, but sadly he passed away August of the next year at 84 years.

Anyway back to my Mom.  We had no where to live or go, so she moved to Vancouver to look for work, and from there raised me single-handedly. The Lord was with her back then and opened a door to get a job at a private catholic school as a housekeeper and nurse assistant. The school was called Vancouver College. The same school TV favorite Steve Dotto went to. Actually he was in my class.  He's famous, I'm not ;-)

vancouver college, the old residence building has been torn down for a parking lot, the beautiful trees cut down for a central court...too bad.

That's where I grew up. It was a private Catholic boarding school, from grades 1-12.  I lived in the dormitories.
Those were what I call the "dark ages" of my life. It was a very tough time for me growing up in there, having no family to speak of and 'living at the school' I was a loner which I guess made me not popular with my peers.


I was always in fights and stuff and I never really won any. I tried gassing a guy to death by holding his head down to the gas jets in the chem lab, but stopped.  I think the frustration of trying to please my domineering mother who forbad me to fight was penned up inside me.

I graduated with about I think a 58% average. I was an "A" student in my early grades but dropped real bad in grade four because I was molested as a kid by one of the teachers and some perverted kids  Anyway it didn't do much for my self image and confidence. Plus I was told I had mental problems by one of the teachers.  Well I believe it was ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) but she seemed to have an agenda in getting me committed. 

After graduation, I went to Vancouver Community College (different place) and took psychology and sciences. Only time I understood the teacher in psych class was when I was drunk. I started going to parties and other stuff in College, but gave up on it from guilt thinking of how my mom raised me and put me thru school...not for this kinda lifestyle and I didn't want to end up as some statistic.

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