for the backgroundI was born on July 16th, 1980, at 4:59 am. My mom was quite surprised I was a girl, because she had two boys previously and had just assumed, for some reason, that I would be a boy too. She named me Paige, because she knew someone else who had the name, and she loved it, and Lynn for my middle name because it was hers. We lived in Ambridge, Pennsylvania at the time, which was in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I lived with my Mom, Carol; my Dad, Tom; my brother Richard David, who was a year and a half old; and my brother Thomas Shawn, who was almost 4.
Obviously, I don't remember any of this time, or at least not much. So most of what I know is just from being told, or looking at pictures. My father was never really the fatherly type. I love him to death, but he just wasn't cut out for it, and didn't know how to handle it. He was often mean, I guess, from what I've been told, and threatening. Mom and him separated when I was 3. I suppose a lot of things happened that I don't know about, but I really cannot recall much. I do remember that I used to have this little plastic shopping cart, that I absolutely loved. And he got mad, and he broke it, and I cried. Mom made him walk to the store to buy me a new one, which he did. Mom hardly stood up to Dad, I think she was too scared. A lot of times, we'd just leave and drive around for hours until he'd calm down. One time, he even tried burying my dog alive because he was mad because the Steelers lost a football game. (He swears this never happened, but hey, I was told it did.) Like I said, they separated when I was 3. I began going to daycare at 3 also. Mom was going to school to try to get us to someplace. Ric was in kindergarten, and Shawn was in 2nd grade. I don't have many memories of daycare either, except I do recall they made me try spinach, which I hated. :)
I remember my first day of kindergarten, though. I only went half days, and I had been at daycare, and some of us caught a bus from daycare to kindergarten. It would have been shortly after I turned 5. I remember how I felt so grown up as I caught the school bus, *smiles*. Mom was there to see me off, and to take pictures. I don't recall a lot about my first day of school though, but I know I was very excited about finally getting to go to school, and feeling like a 'big kid'. After school, my bus driver dropped me off at the wrong bus stop. I told him it wasn't where I was supposed to be dropped off, but he wouldn't listen. I was dropped off at the busiest interestion in town! :) Mom freaked, when she found out where I was dropped off by the other kids. When she finally found me, I was sitting on the curb. I got up, walked to the door, opened it, got in and said, "Where have you been? I've been waiting 'bout an hour now."
Dad had us every other weekend, I believe. Though he didn't always get us on his weekends. I was taking tap dancing, and ballet (I had been since I was 2, almost 3, I believe), and I absolutely loved it. I had also been taking piano lessons since I had been about 3. I only did that because Shawn got to, and I wanted to do everything he got to do. *Smiles* Life was going fine.. at least I thought it was. Everything seemed so perfect back then, but I suppose I was too young to know what problems were going on, etc. We spent a lot of time with our grandparents, Gram and Pap Lias (My mother's parents). I always loved going there, I still do. Mom had completed two years of college. Apparently she met a truck driver, named Randy White, and fell 'in love' with him. She announced that we were moving to California.
I'm sure it didn't quite happen like that, but it did seem very sudden to me. It seemed like one day she just told us we were moving and the next thing I knew, we had moved. It was the summer after my kindergarten year, I was about 6 years old. We had a yard sale, and sold all of our toys, which Mom saved the money in a steel box for us to buy new toys with when we reached California.
page created - 10/26/98
page updated - 8/4/99