After raising a family of five, Angelina was privileged to continue her education and secure a position with Niagara College as a Psychology instructor. After her husband, Peter Fast, died in 1987 she also worked as a counsellor and grief recovery group facilitator.
She married Joe Vlaar in 1994. He also has five children and together they have 23 grandchildren! To keep up with birthdays is one of their more enjoyable challenges.
She was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 1997, but has been cancer-free since then! She set up a website to encourage cancer patients and updates that every month with some of her writing. You can visit it at www.thevalleyofcancer.com.
Her writing career also includes articles and poetry published in “Pioneer,” “Mennonite Brethren Herald” and “Christian Courier” as well as two books. The Valley of Cancer was first published in 1999 and the “Tenth Anniversary Expanded Edtition” of the book was published in 2008. Seven Angels for Seven Days was published in 2005.
Angelina is an inspirational speaker and has a passion to communicate encouragement to small or large audiences. She is flexible as to topics and chooses those that reflect the needs of her listeners. Her talk, based on the Seven Angels book, is: “Guideposts: When our Paths Lead through Desert Places.” Drawing from her amazing story in the Australian outback, she identifies four principles which serve as guideposts on our journeys.
Angelina and Joe live in picturesque Port Dalhousie where coffee on the porch (in summer) and walks on the pier (in every season) are some of the many things they enjoy.