A mother of two, Karen Blair, has always been a firecracker, from phoning every store in Regina to pursue a boyfriend, to flying airplanes. And as she turns 50, she shows no signs of slowing down -- from swim mom to real estate agent -- this is one mom's story of moving back into the work force.

photo courtesy of Karen Blair

She stands tall at 5-8, with a slender but solid build, natural fiery red hair and a face full of freckles. When you run into her on the street she is most often seen wearing black from head to toe with her blackberry glued to her ear and her reading glasses perched on top of her head. Her hair is cut just above her shoulders. Her fingers are covered with rings, and her nails are always kept long and red. She has a booming voice and eyes that squint as she smiles, which she does often. “I’m not a conformist, nobody in my family conforms,” said Blair, a fact that she is proud of, a fact that she has chosen to base her life on.

As you step into her house you immediately feel the aura that Blair exudes. An eclectic collection of antique furniture, rich colors, red walls, and china cabinet filled with sparkling crystal wine glasses are the first things that catch your eye as you enter her house. She has mirrors everywhere, glass tables, and a huge dark oak dining table that is great for her many dinner parties. Her house is impeccably clean, with one exception, her office. Her office sits in her front living room looking out into the garden below. It is covered with real estate books strewn across every inch.

Her tiny black laptop sits on top of the desk, where you can often hear the clicking of her nails as they hit the keyboard. A bluetooth device is embedded in Blair's ear as she walks throughout the house conversing with anyone and everyone trying to find deals for her clients.

Blair, who turned 50 this summer, decided it was time to follow some of her forgotten dreams, like becoming a successful career woman. She is now working as a realtor and coming to terms with her children growing up and leaving the house. "What do I want to do with the rest of my life? I want to grow up. I mean it all happens so fast, how did I ever get to be 50?" said Blair.

I met Karen many years ago through my parents she was the wife of one of my father’s co-workers and her and my mother. Valerie. became quick friends.

“Karen is one of those people who just has an inner energy that attracts people to her, you just want to get to know her, and find out what her story is,” said my mom, Valerie Miller.  

Her life has been an adventure, one that didn’t always end in the right direction, one based on the idea of the road less travelled. Blair was always a wild child, pulling pranks, staying out late, partying until the sun came up, but she always got good grades and kept a close relationship with her parents and siblings. She strove to live life to its absolute fullest.

Originally from Quebec, Blair has never lost her French Canadian culture, maintaining not only the language but also the spirit of the Quebecois people. She got into figure-skating at an early age, a hobby that she has hung on to for her entire life.  She snuck out of the house, danced at discotheques, earned her aviation tech degree, flew airplanes, chased the love of her life across the country, and charmed her way into the hearts of many people her life touched. She acted as event coordinator for the Calgary Cascade Swim Club, taught skating lessons, and after years of being a stay at home mom and occasionally working part-time jobs, Blair, a dedicated wife and loving mother of two boys, put an end to her swim mother days and took on a new career, just as her husband began to wind down to retire.

“I was happy to see Karen finally get a chance to do what she wants, I know she always wanted to have her own career. She spent her whole life with me and the kids.

photo courtesy of Karen Blair

Karen chose to go back to work once both sons were safely away at university. She represents a growing number of middle-aged women who are choosing to reenter the work force after their kids are grown. According to the report, "Women Entrepreneurs: Leading the Charge" released by CIBC, the fastest growing group of business women are those over 55, with an annual growth rate of over 4 percent, which actually doubles that of self-employed men in the same age group. Karen earned her real estate license, and now at age 50 she shows no sign of slowing down.

Blair came West as part of the Front de Libération du Québec or the FLQ exodus. Born Janice Karen Millet, Blair grew up in the suburbs of Pointe Claire and was the last of four kids. “I was the baby the one who got away with everything, the one who got her way all the time, plus I had a big mouth,” said Blair.

She had two older brothers and a sister, “My sister was perfect, she looked cute and all the rest, and I was the one who wasn’t, I was the tomboy,” said Blair. Her brothers were more than 10 years her senior so they were moving out as she was growing up. This left her father alone, with three women. “My father had no one to play with, so he took me along with him everywhere,” said Blair. “When it came to changing tires he dragged me along, I remember being six years old driving in his lap and by 10 I was the one driving the car.”

Karen’s mother was a teacher, her dad a salesclerk. “My dad was always the big the talker, my mom the bookworm, something that I guess I picked up from her because I always have a book with me,” said Blair.

“In those days you could call and let it ring all day and all night until the phone company disconnects the call. I wanted to get a hold of him and I was really jealous. There was no caller ID so one night I called and let it ring all night. I went to sleep with it ringing and it was still ringing when I woke up so that meant he had been gone all night.” - Karen Blair

Karen’s mom was one of seven children and she was raised in a conservative Catholic family: church every Sunday, bible verses every night, hymns, and prayers were part of daily life. Her mother’s sister even became a grey nun later in life, where she continues to follow her faith to this day.

Karen fondly remembers her aunt, “I remember wanting her big cross, her big hat and the cape, maybe I like black so much now because of her,” she joked.

Karen’s mother, a nonconformist was an atheist but her father was a devout Protestant, who made the children go to church every Sunday until they got old enough to say no.

At a young age Karen got her first pair of skates and began spending her days down the street at the local outdoor skating rink in Pointe-Claire. She loved skating, and her mother soon put her into lessons.

“Back then skating was one of the only sports available for women, I had endless amounts of energy and my mother saw skating as a place where I could burn some of my extra energy off,” said Blair.

Blair’s childhood was full of early morning practices and skating competitions. There were:  Flowing, glittery costumes, bruises, medals and the sound of her blades carving through the ice. Skating became more than a hobby, it was Blair’s passion. She wanted to become the best and trained with professional coaches rigorously. Her parents spent their time and money helping Blair get the best possible training. As she got older Blair realized that she would never succeed at becoming the best in the world at skating, but she still refused to give it up.

“I was big for the sport, all the other girls on the ice were these tiny, petite things, and then there was me towering over everyone. It takes a lot more force to lift someone like me into a jump then for a tiny girl. I knew I wasn’t going to the Olympics, but I still loved skating,” said Blair.

Blair lived in Quebec until she was 16. She resided in a Pointe-Claire which was a predominantly English area where you could speak both French and English. She grew up at a time when the French were often the blue collar workers and the English-speaking people held the white collar jobs. However, all of this changed when the French militant group the FLQ took power and began carrying out attacks on mostly English speaking people.

Karen recalls this time with fear, “When I walked to school there would be militia on the street. They could detain you without reason because of the War Measures Act. My oldest brother Kim had long hippie hair so they would stop him and question him all the time.”

Karen came from a French family with the last name Millet, but her father chose to give his children all very Anglican first names because he felt it would allow them more social flexibility later in life.

“After the FLQ crisis it was better to be openly French because they gave them all the good jobs, it was like reverse discrimination. My father was 40-something and this new political atmosphere was not one he liked. So what do you do? You pick up your toys and move,” said Blair.

Two years after the FLQ crisis, in 1973, Blair and her parents moved west to Vancouver.

photo by: Nadine Miller

Blair switched schools and learned to settle into her new life. She was 16 and getting into trouble.

“I used to do many things I shouldn’t have done back then. I was 5-7^1/2, big for my age and it was at a time when platform shoes were in style. The shoes I had were six inches in the back and four inches in the front, that would put me somewhere around 6-1, I would wear them and I could go anywhere, all the discotheques,” said Blair.

Blair graduated from Carson Graham high school six months early because she had extra credits from Montreal. She decided to take a calculus class to prepare for a course in aviation technology and that’s where she ended up meeting her future husband.

She walked into class and instantly headed to sit in the front of the class. She glanced to the back of the classroom and that when she saw him. They caught eyes and he came to the front to say hi and he said “you fly?, I fly and that was the end of it.”

He told her he’d take her flying the next weekend. She had already been taking flying lessons before their meeting and for their first date he kept his word and they went flying. After that he took her waterskiing on his motor boat in the Fraser River. “He was great, no wonder I liked him so much!” exclaimed Blair.

“Then he came to my 18th birthday and I didn't know how old he was but I did not want him to know how old I was turning so I called every family member and told them not to tell or I would tell their secrets. I thought Martin was probably in his 20s so I couldn’t risk him finding out how young I was, but the one person I didn’t tell came in and yelled happy 18th! His jaw dropped. I was beet red. It was so embarrassing.”

Blair had been dating him for nearly five months when she found out he was 10 years older than her. Her parents didn’t care, her mom the rebel said  “you can do something stupid whatever time of day, you make your own decisions.”

Blair continued to date her future husband Martin on and off for the next few years. He moved away for a job he got in Winnipeg and Blair stayed in British Columbia to take her Aviation tech degree at Simon Fraser University.

At 22, she moved to Edmonton.

Blair recalls that while living in Edmonton she desperately missed Martin and tried to call his house every five minutes until he would pick up.

“In those days you could call and let it ring all day and all night until the phone company disconnects the call. I wanted to get a hold of him and I was really jealous. There was no caller ID so one night I called and let it ring all night. I went to sleep with it ringing and it was still ringing when I woke up so that meant he had been gone all night,” said Blair.

With no answer Karen called his manager at work and asked where Martin was.

“His manager said he was in Regina doing an audit, so I phoned every store in Regina asking if Martin Blair was there from the audit department. They all panicked thinking they are going to be audited. I phoned until I found the right one. He was at one of the Regina stores and I finally found him got them to put him on the line. He was so surprised to hear from me, but not surprised that I was able to track him down. I told ‘Martin, I have a ticket to Regina to come and see you’, I had bought a ticket before I even talked to him. He picked me up from the airport, and we decided to finally get serious about one another,” said Blair.

“Karen never ceased to amaze me, she was always doing impulsive and crazy things, and that’s what I loved about her. I liked that she was strong and independent, and even a little kooky at times. She embellishes anyway, I’m sure the story didn’t happen exactly like that,” laughed her husband Martin.

Blair won a dozen roses on Valentine's Day by calling into the radio station and telling them this story which she says is “not stalkery, it’s romantic.”

photo courtesy of Karen Blair

“I graduated from Simon Fraser with my aviation degree, and I really struggled to find a good job, it’s a competitive industry that’s for sure,” said Blair. She finally found a job working as a pilot for a small company just outside of Edmonton.

“I flew a 421 turbo prop pressurized. I had all my licenses. Being a junior pilot, there would be like 10 people trying to get my job because you have to build up your hours and it was hard to get a job in aviation.”

Blair got married to Martin at age 24 and decided quit her job working as a junior pilot.

“We got paid by stat shoot mile, so you would get paid by how many miles you flew. And if you worked it out I was getting less then minimum wage,” said Blair.

Shortly after quitting her job, Karen decided it was time to have children. After a miscarriage she had her first boy, Aaron while still living in Edmonton. It was the 80s and there was a major recession going on, people were selling their houses for one dollar to other people in hopes of not ruining their own credit, times were hard. Luckily though Martin was still working for Shell Canada who paid for moving expenses so the family picked up and went to Calgary. Two years later Karen gave birth to her second son, Leigh.

“I lived with three males and the cat was male too. Holy smokes, that’s a lot of testosterone,” joked Blair.

With two small sons, and a husband who worked long days, Blair became a full time stay at home mom.

“I felt like I needed to stay home with the boys, they both had so much energy and were a bit of a handful, I am their mother and it’s my responsibility to make sure they stay on the right path,” said Blair.

Blair does admit that she did have some concerns though.

“I was worried, you know? I didn’t want to be bored, and I didn’t want to become one of those moms who lose themselves,” said Blair.

Blair took on the role of motherhood in stride. She was part of the PTA, coached teams, joined mother groups, volunteered at the school, anything she could do to stay involved. She played an active role in both her children’s lives, something that neither of them took for granted.

“I remember always feeling lucky that my mom was the one who always took my class on field trips, or made snacks for me and my friends when I got home from school,” said Leigh, Blair’s youngest son.

She enrolled Aaron into competitive swimming because she felt it would help him burn off some of his extra energy.

“Teachers were always telling me Aaron had Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and I knew they were crazy, Aaron wasn’t bad he just had a lot of extra energy and he needed a place that would focus that energy into something productive. I found that with the Cascade Swim Club in Calgary,” said Karen.

“I was worried, you know? I didn’t want to be bored, and I didn’t want to become one of those moms who lose themselves.” -- Karen Blair.

Blair acted as an event coordinator for the Cascade Swim Club and Aaron pursued his swimming career up to the Olympic trials. Meanwhile, Blair was also involved in helping and encouraging Leigh with his passion for rugby.

“I really feel like if I hadn’t decided to stay home with the boys one of them would have definitely ended up or jail,” confessed Blair.

Aaron Blair, said he was happy to have a mother like Karen, who was always there for him even when he didn’t want her to be.

“My mom wasn’t always like other moms, she definitely does things a little differently than other moms, but I learned to appreciate that about her. She was the mom who took us sailing, and skiing on weekends. She was the one who went on crazy vacations like when we went on a bike tour around France. My childhood was filled with fun adventures,” said Aaron Blair.

As the boys grew older and went off to university Blair was left an empty nester. Although, Leigh her youngest still lives at home at age 21, he is taking full-time classes at the University of Calgary and working a part time job. So he is rarely seen around the house. Blair decided she was not going to stay home anymore. She wanted to go and find herself.

“I’m glad my mom decided to go back to work, it keeps her busy, and she seems happy. I think it’s good for her to have a life of her own,” said Leigh.

Blair took matters into her own hands and headed downtown to take some career aptitude tests.

“It was great, you go down and fill out a bunch of these little tests about your personality, interests and how you behave and it matches you up to an appropriate occupation,” said Blair.

Once she was done the results came back and recommended she take a job working with people, that allows her to get outside the office and partake in hands on activities. One of the jobs recommended was a real estate agent.

“I was excited with the results and decided to pursue this real estate thing, I got my license and started selling houses, I thought hey I’m not so bad at this after all,” said Blair who entered real estate in 2006.

It was hard for Blair at first to re-enter the work force.

“I did doubt my own abilities, I figured no one would want to hire some woman who just spent the better part of her life raising kids, but then I thought what the heck, why not just go for it, make the best of what I have to offer,” said Blair.

Blair says she understands why women struggle with the decision to go back into working full time.

“It is just such a big decision, to go back to work, you never quite know what to expect, or how people will react to you, it’s scary but so worth it, I have never regretted my decision to go back to work once. I am happy, I’m happy with my job, and my life,” said Blair.

Karen wanted to become a career woman, and she went out and accomplished her goal.

Blair says that she finally feels fulfilled, and that she would tell other women that they should never give up on their dreams. She says she would encourage other women to go and take career aptitude tests to figure out what they want to do, and then go and pursue that.

“I think women nowadays are capable of anything, we can be mothers and have jobs after too. My husband is mostly retired and I am just getting into the swing of my new career, it’s a good thing though, and it’s been good for me,” said Blair.

Karen’s husband Martin agrees that her going back to work has been a good thing.

“Karen always talked about going back to work, and I encouraged her to go and do that. I’m ten years older than her, and I am going into retirement but that doesn’t mean she needs to do that with me. Karen has always been an independent woman, even if I hadn’t agreed she would have gone and done it anyhow just to prove me wrong,” said Martin.

Blair is now a successful real estate agent, making over $100,000 a year. She sells houses throughout the city, of all different price values. But she also continues to partake in old hobbies like garage-saling. She constantly has some project on the go, and is known as the handy-woman in her group of friends.

“I always know that if there is a problem stringing cable, trimming trees, painting rooms, or rebuilding something one of the kids broke, Karen is always the one to the rescue,” said Valerie Miller.

Another friend of Karen’s, Brenda Anderson, says that when she was moving back to Calgary a few years ago it was Karen who jumped in to help her family find the perfect house. She says that Karen is and has always been the woman who will give anything to help her friends.

“Karen is just a really nice person. She lives what she says, and I think that is something a lot of people lack these days,” said Anderson.

Karen Blair is an ordinary woman, with an extraordinary attitude. She has spent her life pouring her soul into everything she does. She is not afraid to take chances and make mistakes and she says that some of her biggest risks have had the biggest pay-offs.

“I haven’t always had the calmest life, or the best luck, but life is what you make of it, and it’s all about your attitude and how you look at things. Taking chances is the only way to get rewards,” said Blair.

This is a motto she has clearly lived by, from becoming a pilot, to chasing her husband across the country, to becoming a real estate agent because a career aptitude test told her to, Blair has never been one to shy away from opportunities.

“I haven’t had the chance to do everything I want to do yet, but who has? I’m just going to keep living, and keep working towards things that make me happy,” said Blair.