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| My Kitsilano dining room - Mamiya RB-67- Kodak Technical Pan - 17 June 2026 |
Early on,
when I married my Rosemary in Mexico City on February 8 1968, I saw her as the decision
maker of the family. In 1975 she made the decision that we should move to
Vancouver. Every day of my life since, I have thanked her in person or in my
memory.
Her most
telling decision was to move us from our little strata home in Burnaby to a
palace in Kerrisdale with a huge corner garden. We had to pay a $3500 monthly
mortgage so I was given a domingo, Spanish for an allowance.
In all those
years Rosemary made intelligent financial decisions. That all changed 13 years
ago, when I made my first important decision. Our Kerrisdale roof had to be
repaired and the bathrooms leaked. We could not afford repairs as we had
exhauster our money on buying plants for the garden and our trips abroad.
My decision
was to sell the house. She was adamant but I insisted. In the height of the
influx of immigrants we sold our house for very good cash. With that cash we
helped our two daughters. Rosemary found a good financial advisor, Cameron McClean
of BMO Nesbitt Burns.
We bought a
little duplex in Kitsilano. Rosemary was not happy. She told me, “We are going
to be forced to live in a community (it is a double duplex) with people we might
not like (she was right!).
Now as I
live day to day with my female cat Niña I have no financial worries. I went to
see Cameron McClean and asked him about my expensive interest in printing
inkjets almost every day. The inks are expensive as is the paper. Cameron, with
that stable voice of his told, “You can keep spending money if that is your
love. It will not put a dent on your investments.”
And so my
decision, my only one, keeps me relaxed knowing that when I meet my oblivion
one of my two daughters or two granddaughters will want to live in the house as
it is.