Birth Date: August 26, 1951

Likes: Reading, coffee breaks with friends, gardening, good books, good movies, good live theatre, laughter, cooking, Leisurely soaks in the bathtub (not necessarily in that order!)

Dislikes: Bathroom scales, never-ending laundry, unreliable people, litterers, fighting and all that's "unfair"

Hobbies: Sewing, writing, reading, jogging, gardening, and writing letters to friends and family.

Aspirations: Get back into writing as a career and find a balance between life outsid the house and inside! To keep in touch with old friends. To keep family photos up to date.

Elly Patterson juggles the daily duties of being a dedicated mom and wife and a willing ear to friends. While sometimes wishing for nothing more than a few quiet minutes to herself, she thrives on being involved and active. We are endeared to her as she demonstrates, in her humorous way, that it's okay to be human while juggling life's demands - even when your Super Woman t-shirt is in the laundry! Never losing sight of what's important, Elly always makes time to sit and chat over a steaming coffee with a friends, sharing the losses and victories on the battlefield of life. Elly is the cornerstone of the Patterson family and it is her philosophy, her interactions with the other characters and her ability to keep things running (even if not always smoothly) around whom the story revolves.

Elly Richards was born and raised in Vancouver with her younger brother, Phil. After high school, she followed her life-long ambition of becoming a writer and made a giant leap of faith moving as far as Toronto to attend university. Not knowing the city, or anyone in it, she accepted the challenge of finding her place and her independence, and succeeded in both. She made a network of friends at the University of Toronto, including her best bud, Connie, and had the Toronto transit system down in no time!

It was in a campus library where she met John Patterson, snoozing away in her familiar study nook. He was funny, witty and charming (once awake, anyway) and she instantly felt comfortable in his company. The fact that he offered her free dental work was just a bonus! After a year of serious dating, he proposed and they were married the next February and settled happily into a small basement bachelor apartment. Elly's interest in her degree was fading by this time and she wanted to get out and WRITE! She left university early to work in a bookstore and do some freelance writing while John finished up his dentistry training.

Once academia was behind them, they moved to a 2 bedroom apartment outside of Toronto and continued developing their careers...and, as it happened, their family! Elly was 24 when she found herself unexpectedly, but joyfully, pregnant! Michael was born to his excited parents a healthy baby with healthy lungs. They stayed in the "cozy" apartment until Michael was 4 and gaining steam as an energetic kid. Thoughts were also percolating about having another baby. By then, enough money had been saved from John's dental practice for a down-payment on a house and Connie had the perfect one in mind, right across the street from her place in suburban Toronto. Elly was thrilled, and still is, to have the extra space inside and out for her family to grow, and a good friend just a coffee cup's throw away.