An ordained minister and a doctor of divinity, North Vancouver's Anne Marie Evers is best known as the Affirmation Doctor.
Ever since the practice of daily personal affirmations transformed her life, Anne Marie has made it her mission to encourage others to do the same.
She's a speaker, teacher, broadcaster and author of several books on the subject, most recently, 70 Ways to Cope with Chemo and Other Medical Treatments.
Born in the hamlet of Metiskow, Alta., to a travelling evangelist and a church pianist, Anne Marie's earliest memories are of being in motion.
Her parents would pile Anne Marie, her brother and sisters into the back seat of the car and down the road they would go, on to the next town. The family covered a lot of ground in those travelling days, back and forth over the spine of the Rockies from Alberta to British Columbia.
"My father usually found a church so that we would be settled when school started," Anne Marie remembers. "Even then, I was always trying to help wherever I could."
When the Second World War came along, Anne Marie's father, like many veterans of the Great War, served as a guard at internment camps. His post was the German Prisoner of War Camp 133, just outside of Lethbridge, Alta., where the family settled for the duration. After the war, with the family relocated to Surrey, Anne Marie was so proficient scholastically, she moved right into her first job, as secretary to the principal of her high school.
Anne Marie and her first husband, Albert Evers, went into the food business, running restaurants in southern B.C. and Washington state. When they moved to North Vancouver, Anne Marie was working as a real estate agent and broker. With life increasingly difficult due to Albert's heavy drinking, Anne Marie found herself facing three options. "I could leave, take up drinking or find other interests."
In those days, with no shelters for women and children and with two youngsters to care for, only one of those options was viable. In her search for other interests, Anne Marie found the practice of daily personal affirmations.
"I learned you can only change yourself. Daily affirmations helped change how I viewed things. Yes, my husband did cut back on his drinking, but I wasn't counting on that."
By the time of Albert's death in 1988, the relationship had mellowed and Anne Marie felt inspired to share her journey with others, publishing her first book, Affirmations: Your Passport to Happiness.
Anne Marie's second marriage also ended with the death of her husband.
Roy Singer, who worked at the shipyards in North Vancouver, passed away after 12 years of marriage.
It may be true that the third time is the charm, for Anne Marie found the love of her life in the person of Reginald Clemens. For a few years, their life was lit with happiness. It took a devastating lurch with Reg's death in 2012 and another just over a year later, in July 2014, when Anne Marie was diagnosed with colon cancer.
"I wanted to hop into bed and say, 'Goodbye, cruel world'. What pulled me through? My faith, my children and my affirmations."
At this most challenging time of Anne Marie's life, when it was a daily effort to rise and put one foot in front of the other, she found the strength to accept that life, whether full of bumps or lit with bliss, is never about the destination. It is always about the journey towards finding our purpose.
It's a busy life for North Vancouver's ambassador of affirmations. 70 Ways to Cope with Chemo and Other Medical Treatments is available as an e-book along with her other publications. Anne Marie speaks to cancer patients at Lions Gate Hospital every month and is into the ninth year of a series of monthly talks on affirmations at Silver Harbour Seniors' Activity Centre.
"My life is a testament to the power of daily affirmations. I test-drove every affirmation that I offer," says Anne Marie. "Today, I live in the hope that I can inspire someone to believe 'If she can do it, I can do it."
Info: annemarieevers.com.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
