About Me – Monique Liddle

Monique Liddle

My Mom is 100% Canadian and my Dad is 100% British. This means my brother and I are 50/50! I was born in Canada, whereas, my brother was born in England: different passports, same background! Females – Canadian. Males – British. After we moved from England, we came to the new country. Yes, I am a first generation immigrant. And like some immigrants, we moved around (to 4 states before the age of 18). Overall, I have lived in many states east of the Mississippi River (and visited almost the rest of them). Here’s the low-down:

1. Canada
2. England
3. South Carolina
4. Northern New Jersey
5. Eastern Pennsylvania
6. Ohio
7. Baltimore, MD – Attended university
8. Sothern Alabama – the deep-south!
9. Eastern Virginia
10. Western Tennessee
11. Nashville, TN – Received my first graduate degree in ethics & women’s studies
12. Louisville, KY
13. Eastern North Carolina
14. Bloomington, Indiana – Received my 2nd graduate degree in counseling & began doctoral program in Counseling Psychology
15. Northwestern Pennsylvania – I have lived here for the past several years

For the past 12 years, I have struggled with multiple sclerosis (MS), trigeminal neuralgia (TN), and most recently with diabetes (DB). In a way, they seemed to have taken over my life. Since November 1, 2011, I made a conscious decision to stop them from controlling my life. My health is one of the major bends in the road of my life. I have no control over these types of life changes. I do have control about how I choose to respond to the decline in my health and other “bends.”

To keep me company in life, other than my family and my dear, wonderful friends, I adopted a dog and two cats in 1993 and 1996. They helped me through many life changes: A brief marriage, divorce at the age of 24, many geographical moves, boyfriends, universities and major changes in my health. I have missed them greatly. Almost 2 years ago, two cats – Zack (top pic) and Morris (bottom pic) – adopted me and have kept me sane and made me laugh. I can’t help but smile when Zack goes in the bathroom sink. Maybe he’s hoping for a bath! Who knows? Morris has his own quirks as well. One of these days I’ll get a picture or video of him drinking from the bathroom water faucet! Every time I go in my bathroom he (and now Zack) run and jump on the bathroom counter and wait for me to run water gently from the tap! Needless to say, I don’t have any bathroom privacy – but then again does anyone who adopts a cat or dog? My dog used to follow me everywhere also – including the bathroom! Is privacy not an option when we adopt our furry friends?!?!

I will blog about how I have struggled/managed through my many different bends in the road of my life. What I would love most of all is for you to share stories of your struggles in life that were beyond your control. I have ideas on how we can do this in the future. In addition to sharing stories, please be free to contact me to add resources and other categories to the Resource page.  My main hope for this website is that it be interactive, so that we can learn from each other.

Your comments are extremely important to me – whatever subject they may be.  For now, you can use the contact page to reach me, email me at monique@bendsintheroad.com, send me a Tweet, or comment on the web Facebook page.

I’m looking forward to meeting you –   :)

Monique