Christmas Newsletter 2013
I usually try and make sure my annual family newsletters are upbeat and at least somewhat entertaining to read. This year it is going to be difficult to do that. Nothing prepares you for losing a loved one and sadly this year I have had to deal with losing Carolyn to cancer. You may be surprised to even know that Carolyn had cancer. She was first diagnosed a number of years ago and at the time it seemed we had caught the breast cancer early enough that it was all going to be very manageable. Carolyn wanted to be very private about this and so few family and friends were even aware. Then in 2010 she had a recurrence. Again she preferred that this matter stay private and so it did.
At that time another event happened to us that would have a big impact on us. That was the purchase of the property on Maui. Originally meant as an investment with a side benefit of giving us a place to stay when we visited it ended up becoming much more. As you may have heard Carolyn and I headed to Maui (sprecksplantationhouse.com) in February of 2011 to begin what was to become an extensive restoration of the property located in a beautiful part of Maui’s north shore. What was meant to take a month or so became a six month major undertaking. I was commuting back to my work responsibilities back in BC but Carolyn decided she had found her home. It had a lot to do with a certain Banyan tree and the aloha spirit she found in Maui. In any event she decided this was her home and she was there to stay. She found an enormous amount of spiritual comfort in her new surroundings and up in her Banyan tree she found the solace that was so elusive on the ground. She pursued her spiritual healing in this new environment but unfortunately the disease continued to make its dreadful progress in her body. We had planned to go to Spain to join Lisa last Christmas in Granada, Spain but we had to cancel that trip in late November. Instead Lisa and her boyfriend Julio, along with Jeff, joined us in Maui for what was to be our last Christmas together. Carolyn passed away on February 8th of this year. As you can imagine it has been a difficult time for us as well as for our family and friends.
I would have liked to have been able to spend more time with Carolyn in 2012 but unforeseen challenges at the office made it difficult. I had thought I was going to be able to join Carolyn in April of last year but it was just not possible. So I spent a fair amount of time commuting back and forth. Even then I did not realize how quickly events were to take place. In fact in October Carolyn came to Vancouver to attend a Barbra Streisand concert along with her sister Sue. At that time we noticed she had lost some weight and was looking a bit more frail but I do not think any of us thought she only had a few months to live. I was unfortunately immersed in office problems and doing my best to shed myself of work responsibilities. My endeavors eventually paid off, but my business did not actually sell until March 1st of this year. So as of this year I am officially out of the real estate business.
Since that time it has been a matter of trying to move on in this new environment of mine. I also had to pack up once again as the house I had been living in had been sold so Jeff and I were back in BC trying to pack and sort. At least I was keeping busy.
In mid March I was contact by my long time good friend John Cuzner from the sailboat J’Sea. Carolyn, Jeff and I had last sailed on his boat in the Caribbean in the winter of 2008. Since that time John had taken the J’Sea around the world and he was planning to sell the boat as soon as he got it to Florida. I had been talking to John about chartering it from him before he sold it so it looked like we had better make our plans sooner than later. So that is what we did and in early April I flew to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with Jeff. Lisa left Spain around the same time and we were soon altogether on the J’Sea looking for some sailing adventures. The J’Sea is a 52’ Jeanneau and we had thought we would sail to Haiti as Jeff had been living on that island recently and he had convinced us it was a great place to check out. We had out the word for crew and our friends Marie-Claude and
her husband Jim were quickly signed up. However a week before we were to sail something came up with Jim and he could not make it but fortunately another mutual friend, Priscilla, was keen and willing to join us. We had all sailed together about three years before in Desolation Sound when Carolyn had invited her two yoga friends to join us on a Jeanneau 46. Lisa was also along on that trip. We decided that Haiti was a little ambitious so settled for sailing into the Bahamas. It was amazing sailing as we worked our way to the Abacos Islands. The big challenge sailing in these waters is how shallow it is. We found ourselves sailing in one area where it never got deeper than 25 feet and we could not see any land around us. We could literally count starfish as we sailed for the Abacos Islands. It was a little disconcerting to someone use to avoiding areas where there was less than 30 feet of water. But in the Bahama sailing in shallow waters is a way of life.
Marie-Claude and Priscilla left us at Marsh Harbour after two weeks of sharing our sailing adventures and we headed on to the Berry Islands. Just the three of us. We worked our way to Bimini Island and back to Ft. Lauderdale after a total of about five weeks of sailing. It was quite an adventure. Jeff and Lisa returned to Europe. Jeff to Portugal and Lisa to Spain where she has been living in Granada with her boyfriend Julio. I made my way from Ft. Lauderdale to Tampa to visit my Aunt Vi in the area I was born. She lives in the same house she lived in when she went to high school! She is a very special aunt of mine and we had a very nice time together. This is also the house of my grandfather and grandmother so there are lots of memories here for me.
Upon leaving Tampa I flew to Spain to rejoin Lisa and Jeff. The plan was to head to Italy with some of my mother’s ashes. We originally were going to place them in the family crypt in Bari, Italy but Italian bureaucracy got in the way so we decided to place them in the harbour of Bari in an area known as the Lungo Mare which is where she played as a child. After spreading her ashes in the sea we were able to visit all our special Italian family. We visited Luciana and Pina in Bari. Then my cousin Rosella and Donato in nearby Genzano di Lucania. Then to Calimira near Otranto to see Luciana and her husband. Then up toward Rome to see my cousin Paola and Pasquale and their two kids. All in one week. Then Lisa returned to Spain while Jeff and I flew up to Germany to visit by mother’s sister who we know affectionately as Zia Maria. Kind of rhymes doesn’t it. I drove Jeff to Strasburg as he continued on to Switzerland to visit our Swiss family. I returned to to Spain and worked my way back to Vancouver where I was able to enjoy some sailing with friends. Then back to Maui to get some kitesurfing in and attend to the various projects that accrue with our vacation rental property there.
Recently I was able to meet up with Lisa to celebrate my 64th birthday. Couldn’t keep the Beatles ‘When I’m 64’ song out of my head. It was supposed to happen many years from now, or so the song goes.
As I finish off this letter I am looking forward to joining Lisa and Jeff in Portland, Oregon to share this Christmas with Carolyn’s sister Sue and her family. Lisa will be flying in from Montreal as she and Julio have recently moved to Montreal from Granada, Spain where she has been living the last two years. Big changes for Jeff too as he is starting the Computer Science Program at Simon Fraser University beginning in January. Jeff recently moved back to Vancouver with a plan to attend University after many years of travel and working abroad. This past year he spend most of the time in Europe where he focused on Portugal. He joined up with Lisa to tour an area of Spain just north of Portugal known as Galicia. Jeff and Lisa are convinced this is the home of our ancestors. They believe our last name comes from this area as they found a little town named ‘Temes’ and even a castle built by ‘The Temes Family’. Just another piece of the ancestry puzzle that can be so interesting. I hope to do a little more digging on this subject matter in my retirement. I did almost forget to mention I had a little retirement party in October where I had the opportunity to reconnect with so many of my friends and former co-workers. Of the many things I miss, certainly work is not one of them.
By the way if you have made good use of my calendars in the past I need to tell you this will be the last one. However, I will continue to try and post an annual update. It’s interesting to summarize the year if for no other reason than that it has been useful to me to try and recollect what I did with all those years that have slipped by. It does not seem that long ago that ‘When I’m 64’ was a whimsical song by Paul McCartney that almost seemed seemed silly, as turning sixty four appeared to be such a futuristic concept. I first started an annual newsletter from my first computer which I purchased from my brother in 1983. An Apple II which I still have as I believe it will be museum material if it not already is. Having all those annual summaries has been valuable in trying to remember where all those years went. It has been 37 years since Carolyn and I first moved to Vancouver. Thirty three years since I first went in to the real estate business. Carolyn and I had been together for almost 40 years and shared an amazing life together. She has left me with two cherished children and a lifetime of beautiful memories. As this is the time of year to reflect on gifts I can’t help but thinking the most special gift we all have is our precious time here on earth.
Happy Holidays!
[Glenn]