The boys were close to Laurie's age and unbeknownst to me at the time, taught her all kinds of interesting things. The three of them would be closeted for hours in their bedroom, playing records and "hanging out". It was here she learned to play chess and at the tender age of five, how to play various card games, including poker. It was in this very cramped little bedroom that they put together her first dollhouse one Christmas eve. It was made out of metal and had millions of little windows and doors that had to be assembled.

I also discovered, in later years, that Bill used to take her with him out to the train station where the only pinball machines could be found. Somewhere along the line, they also taught her to shoot pool. At one point, they bought a big old motorcycle between them and Laurie would sit on the back with a huge helmet tilted over her face, while they roared up and down the back streets through Sandy Hill.What did I know! - those were the days.

One summer, a few years after we'd settled in Ottawa, Mum took the boys back to Nova Scotia for a holiday. It was a cold, wet summer that year and she developed pneumonia. When they came back to Ottawa she was very ill and in the course of the next few weeks, she had a massive heart attack.

Nova Scotia stock is strong (one of the doctor's thought it was probably the minerals in the hard water that protected her to the degree she recovered); she probably would have recovered from the heart attack, had she not been accidently subjected to an overdose of dijoxin. In those days, the dosage and effects were not clearly understood. And so it was that for the next many years, she slowly deteriorated physically. While her mind remained clear and independent to the last, she became physically incapacitated. In and out of hospital for many years, she died just before her 65th birthday the year that Laurie turned fourteen.

It's difficult to believe now, as I look back on those years, how we all survived each other, the lack of money and living crammed into a small two-bedroom apartment in an old walk-up building...and with only one bathroom! We ate a lot of hamburger and we didn't have any extras. When the question of university loomed on the horizon, there was no question about who would pay for their tutition: they would. So they all got after-school jobs, weekend jobs, saved their pennies and one brother and Laurie put themselves thro school. I used to say that one of the few things that governments' did right was making college loans available, albeit at a price.

My brother Mike is a psychologist (long-married with two boys of his own), Laurie has her Master's degree and teaches the wee ones in Toronto. Bill (who decided university wasn't his cup of tea) now is an armed security person transporting millions of dollars in cash around Quebec and Ontario.


Mike and Deb, Laurie, Drew and Pete

After Laurie graduated from Guelph and Queen's Universities, she went to teach school in Guadelajara, Mexico, for a couple of years (she did her Masters degree there). That was the start of the grown-up travelling times for she and I together. We've been to Mexico, Greece, Europe, the Caribbean (two cruises), and even some Canadian spots...we've had some exciting times together.

Laurie & I (in front of her house in Mexico)

Actually, we started doing our trucking around together when she was about five. We'd save all our loose change and then choose a place that cost that amount and that you could get to without a car. I vividly remember Pine Ridge Lodge. It was way off the beaten track and the first year we decided to go, I had just enough money for the trip by bus and the accommodation, and not a penny to spare. We arrived in a little stopping-off place to wait for the second bus that would take us to our destination (where someone from the lodge would come and pick us up) only to be told there was no second bus that day; the next bus would leave in the morning.

Well, what to do! We were still several hours' drive away from the Lodge. The lady behind the ticket counter suggested a taxi and I told her that wasn't an option, 'cause I had no money. She looked at me curiously, and then at Laurie sitting happily on top of our suitcases and gave me a phone number to call. I called the number and told the fellow who answered that Lucy had given me his name. He said he was in the middle of dinner, but he'd be right over. When he pulled up, he was driving a taxi and said he'd drive us to where we wanted to go for a flat fee and that we could send him the money when we got back to Ottawa.

Given half a chance, people are far more wonderful than some reports would have you believe.

Well, it looks like I'm flipping this story right back into the early years. Give me a minute to freshen up my coffee and I'll be back to tell you about the Hotel we bought while I was growing up...about the time I spent in radio and t.v. in Halifax... working days and singing bluesy stuff in a bar at night one cold winter...hey, I just remembered the summers I spent working at Keltic Lodge, Ingonish Beach... and a pile of other stuff. I'm discovering that I don't remember things in chronological (or any other kind of) order.

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