Diane Stephenie Burton was born on July 1, 1970, in Savannah, Georgia. Her mother, Suzanne, was a house cleaner, and her father, Nate, was a jazz musician and songwriter. Nate wrote jingles in the 50s and 60s for television commercials, but that died off not long after Diane was born. Jazz just wasn't a catchy way to sell products anymore; rock and roll and contemporary became the way to go. Nate still provided a decent income by playing jazz guitar with an ensemble, doing shows all over the southern USA. Although Diane's family didn't have much money, Diane wasn't aware of it. She was a happy child. She enjoyed her life in Savannah, and she always knew her parents loved her. She had lots of friends at school and in her neighborhood near Washington Square.
A kid's life in Savannah was different from the average kid's life, mostly due to Savannah's culture and history. Diane and her friends would often play hide-and-seek in the Bonaventure Cemetery, the famous resting place of Savannah's favourite son, Johnny Mercer. Because of his famous association, Savannah was also infused with the spirit of jazz; it was the lifeblood of the city and therefore a part of all of its inhabitant's lives.
One bright, hot Savannah day in August 1980, Diane and her friend Arlene were playing in Washington Square, running around the huge trees, trying to catch one another. Diane came around one of the large trees and bumped right into a young boy from her school, Tyler Jackson, and knocked him right on his rear end. Tyler already had a history with Diane, and it wasn't a good one. He was the bully from the grade ahead of Diane and for some reason took a particular disliking to her.
Tyler stood up and dusted the dirt off of his pants. He grabbed Diane by the arms and threw her to the ground, calling her names. Diane stood right back up and got in Tyler's face. She called him a jackass and belted him right in the nose, blood instantly streaming onto his lip. By now, a large group of kids had gathered, and were cheering on Diane. Tyler didn't much like being laughed at and humiliated by a 10-year-old girl, so he moved to grab her and Diane started running. Tyler caught up pretty fast and, being bigger than Diane, threw his weight into a double-handed push on Diane's back. Diane flew forward, falling out of the Square and onto the road ahead, rolling in the dry dirt blowing around on the pavement. As her last roll come to a stop, the last thing Diane saw was her own reflection in a shiny bumper as a city bus screeched to a stop, skidding right past her head and stopping beside her. Diane let out a long sigh of relief and started to sit up. As she tried to lean forward, she found she wasn't able to get up. She turned her head to the right and saw that her right arm was stretched out from her body, but she could only see it just past her shoulder, as the rest of her arm was under the tire of the bus. Her vision went hazy as she realized what had happened, and she turned her head back to the left. In the blurry view from the road, she could see people around her talking to her, trying to help. In the distance she saw Tyler running with all his might in the other direction.
Diane survived the accident and, with the help of metal plates and pins, her arm was mostly reconstructed. Although it was scarred just above the elbow, she regained more than 90% of her arm's functionality despite the doctor's diagnosis that she might never be able to use it at all. She wore her scar like a badge of honour as it represented to her that no one could push her around or keep her down. That rule held true her whole life.
Diane's father died of lung cancer, brought on by a long history of chain smoking, when Diane was 12. After his death, Diane's mother decided that they needed a change of scenery and packed up their belongings to move in with her sister, who lived in Port Hope Ontario Canada. The Canadian winters took some getting used to for Diane, who was used to the sweltering temperatures and daily rains of Savannah, but, true to her personality, she was happy and made many new friends in her new home.
As a teenager in Port Hope, Diane fell in with a bad crowd during her high school years. She took care to keep most of her undesirable activities secret from her mother, but she was involved in a life of civil disobedience and alcohol. When Diane was 17, she lost a close friend in a drinking and driving accident when some friends had left a party and gone out joyriding, fortunately not taking Diane with them ( they didn't know she was passed out in the basement and left without her.) When Diane awoke the next day and discovered what had happened to her friends, she swore she would get her life in order, and vowed never to have to live through that kind of torment again.
Diane went to university in Toronto, and eventually became a grade school teacher. She wanted to have an impact on kid's lives. She eventually found a teaching job in the Durham Region (just east of Toronto) and moved to Whitby. It was there she met Patrick and eventually, me.
On June 17, 2000, after the tumultuous development of our relationship, Diane and I got married in my sister's backyard, with a small gathering of family and friends to help usher in our new life together. Diane's journey had brought her to a place where she was most happy, and thankfully that place was making a home, with me.
