National Adult Literacy Database

December 11, 2006

Kathy reading her work at the Halifax North Public Library

Kathy Dobson is a student from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the one to one tutoring program at the Halifax North Public Library with Coordinator Jennifer Peach. Her tutor is Carolyn Kaye.

Kathy's Story

by Kathy Dobson

I was born January 30, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My mother named me Kathleen Ann Dobson but I was always called Kathy. I was the third of seven children. When I was a child I had polio. Polio caused me to be hospital for a long time so I missed a lot of school. I had to learn to walk again and later I learned to read and write. My mother knew something was wrong and took me to the hospital right away. They said I had polio. I was lucky she did that because my polio could have been much worse. While I was in the hospital, I had speech therapy and physiotherapy. When I got out of the hospital, my mother took me to regular school but I had fallen too far behind so I waited for a place in a special school in Truro. I was there for seven years. Two of my brothers went to school in Truro and I got to see one of them sometimes. I loved the school in Truro. We had lots of fun in between our lessons. We went for walks, there were parties, we had field trips and later, me and another girl had a job washing cars and earned some money.

When I finished school, I came back to Halifax. I lived with my mom and three brothers. Later I moved in with a friend. I worked at a day care, a senior’s home and a restaurant. I haven’t worked for quite awhile. I started the library program in 1994.