28 July 2026

 

My mother was a proto feminist. As a little boy I complained that she had broken the yolk of the fried eggs she served me. She told me, “Alex if you don’t like the way I fry eggs you learn to make them.” And this I did. My mother taught me to be self-sufficient. Unknowingly she taught she prepared me for my next feminist who was the woman I first saw from the back on a Mexico City street on December 15, 1967. From that point on and until she died on 9 December 2020 she made all our decisions except one. I will elaborate on that a tad later.

In 1975 she told me that she, our two daughters and I were moving to Vancouver and that we would make that trip in our VW Beetle.

In 1986 she informed me that we were going to move to a large house in Kerrisdale that had a large corner garden. The mortgage was $3500 per month. She gave me my domingo which translates to “she gave me a weekly allowance”

Nine years ago I made my first (and perhaps only) important decision. I told Rosemary we could not afford to repair our house roof or fix the leaky bathrooms. Against her will we bought the little duplex in Kitsilano.

We sold our house for a very large sum of money and helped our two daughters to buy their properties. I now do not need to worry about money. In spite of the fact that I made the decision to sell it was Rosemary’s and my purchase of the Kerrisdale home that got me to where I am now.

As I read about what is going on in this world I thank Rosemary for having brought us to this Canada that is a stable country in a world that is unstable.

Every day, weather permitting, I go in my bike to Jericho Beach. Almost every day I take a photograph of Vancouver from the same spot in a park on Point Grey Road. I use my Fuji X-E3digital camera. The view represents to me the stability of Vancouver and of Canada.

It was on August 15 that Rosemary told me, “Alex you cannot keep bribing the airport security authorities in Buenos Aires and Mexico City to not X-ray your film. You need to buy a digital camera today.” This I did at Leo’s where Jeff Gin recommended a Fuji X-E1. Just in case I have always have had two of everything related to my photographic equipment. I also have a Fuji X-E3. Both cameras have opened up a whole new world even though I take pictures with my film cameras, too.

This 83 year-old man became a very good photographer in Vancouver (to the extent that, yes, we had enough money for that down payment of that Kerrisdale home) thanks to the backing and support of my Rosemary.

And, like my mother she was a feminist. I had to do the cooking and she refused to hem my jeans and sew my buttons.

But I have to clear the air a bit. When I bought her a sewing machine I was the man in charge of adjusting the complicated tension. And I was not too bad at using it.

Until I meet up with my oblivion I will keep saying,”Rosemary, gratias”.