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| Hilary |
As I prepare
for my soon-to-happen-oblivion I have been trying to get rid of stuff. Today I
put 25 wire coat hangers in my recycle box. When I was scanning my plants for a
blog I found this photograph of Hilary (my youngest daughter who is now 55) in
my office desk drawer. How could I not smile when I looked at it? Because it
was so long ago I note that my handwriting was still legible.
I cannot
convince any of my friends the pleasure of filing family photographs, negatives
and slides. I have two exterior hard drives where I have my Family I and Family
II files. When I discover pictures like this one of Hilary I save the scan to
Family II.
It is a
cliché that our past is rosy. But just looking at this photograph I immediately think that we lived
on Springer Avenue in Burnaby and that Rosemary had chosen that our daughters
go to Mallardville to learn French. Life was simple, yes, but I tend to forget
that it was tough looking for paying work as a photographer.
We were
happy in our little strata title little home with a miniscule front garden. We
began to live in it as soon as we arrived from Mexico City in 1975. By 1986 Rosemary in her wisdom moved us to a
splendid home with a large corner garden in Kerrisdale.
She died on
December 9, 2020. Every day of my life I thank her for that rosy past and a
future in which all I have to worry about is how to get rid of wire coat
hangers.
