Dads were generally not allowed in the delivery room when Joyce Mulligan's daughter Kelly was born.
But Joyce's husband Terry insisted on being in the room to watch the birth of his first child.
Unfortunately for Terry, he walked into the wrong room and ended up at the delivery of another child.
"There I was wondering where he was," recalls Joyce with a laugh.
She explains that back then everyone in the room wore surgical masks and Terry wasn't let close enough to see much so he didn't realize he was in the wrong room. Fortunately, he did eventually make it to the right room in time to watch his own daughter being born.
Joyce and Terry later had two more kids, Ryan and Erin, with no deliveryroom mix-ups.
A young mother, Joyce says she was ready to have kids and felt prepared to be a mom. "It was really easy. I wasn't a worrisome mom at all."
But she admits she had some help: "Parenting is pretty easy when your kids are good and mine were good."
Born in Winnipeg, Joyce moved to Vancouver when she was 19 and met Terry not long after her arrival. She was working at a telephone company for about a month when she sat next to Terry on the bus one morning. He was also heading to work.
"We ended up sitting side by side and said hello," says Joyce.
About a week later, the couple ran into each other again at a local restaurant.
"We said hello again and he asked me for my phone number and three years later we got married."
The couple settled in North Vancouver and kids soon followed.
When asked if she always wanted to be a mom, Joyce answers quickly: "Oh yes, oh yes, definitely."
Joyce says her parenting style was very much like her own mother's.
"She was a terrific mom, we got along great," she says. "And I think that's the way my kids and I are. We get along great."
The best piece of parenting advice she got from her mom: "Love your kids like crazy. Just love them like crazy and let them know it."
Although Joyce says she and her husband didn't face any real hardships
as a young couple, her husband's job took him out of town on business often and that was sometimes difficult for the whole family.
In addition, the family moved a lot for Terry's job and lived in a variety of locations including South Africa. Joyce says the moves were sometimes difficult for the kids, but she believes they now appreciate their experiences meeting different people in different parts of the world.
When her youngest daughter was just three months old, the family was transferred to Quebec and drove across the country to get there, exploring along the way.
"We really had a lot of fun doing that," says Joyce.
All three kids are now adults with children of their own, and Joyce says she loves being a grandmother. "They're just a delight," says Joyce of her three grandchildren.
"I've enjoyed being a mom and I really enjoy being a grandma."
She says her two daughters are great moms and adds with a laugh: "Trust me, I'd interfere if they weren't."
Joyce says she really enjoys when the family gets together as they likely will to celebrate Mother's Day.
When asked what the best part of being a mom has been, Joyce pauses to think, sorting through her long mental list.
"I guess the best part about being a mom is that you have them to take care of and mold, and try to see that they follow the right path. They don't always, but you do your best."
This story originally appeared in a special Mother's Day section of the North Shore News.
