Mary was born in Sandy Lake, Manitoba on Jan.14, 1933 and grew up within a large family. Her parents, Peter and Pauline (Nee Adamyk) Romaniuk, had sons John (Katherine), Adam, Victor, Bill (Caroline), Frank, Andrew, Walter (Jennie), Maurice (Delores), Ed (Mary) and daughters Christina and Anne. The family moved to the city of Winnipeg in 1943.
Mom worked at Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) from May 1951 to June 1954 after graduating from Gordon Bell High School. She quickly caught the travel bug when she flew to Nanaimo, B.C. to visit her brother John as soon as she had travel passes. At the time it was a full day of travel with many stops along the way. She would work several other places before returning to Air Canada July 21, 1980 until her retirement from the pensions department in February 1998.