We sure had some great times with my Uncle Dave. When we were kids we would look forward to seeing the fish truck come to our driveway. It was huge and we called it the Christmas tree. My uncle would travel from Abbotsford to Prince George every other week to sell seafood from his Kanaka Seafood truck. It was then that began my life long love of seafood. We used to get fresh clams and they were delicious. Other memories I have are walking along the beach in Parksville and Rathtreavor and my uncle would scream that he was being attacked by a crab and he would have a crab stuck on his big toe. He certainly had a sense of humor, however I was scared to death of crabs. Hmmm I wonder why? We also had many fond memories of visits to his gorgeous home in Abbotford and the swimming pool he had in the back yard. We thought we were in paradise.
Later on when I had my own kids they would absolutely adore Uncle Dave.They used him as a human slide and he loved every minute of it. They would all be laughing hysterically.That's one thing I remember most about my uncle is his laugh...well more like a chuckle. When I met Sean, he would take me and the kids to the island and we would always stop off at my grandma's house so we could visit with grandma and Uncle Dave. I enjoyed our visits even though they were very short. The summer before last (before his kidney disease) we had a huge BBQ with them and we enjoyed our stay even though it was only 2 days.
Then came the planning for Grandma's 90th birthday, which was held in Nanaimo this past May. That's when having email came in handy. Many emails went back and forth to my uncle about decorations and cake and plans. We were able to put on a pretty good show for Grandma's birthday. Our most recent visit to Nanaimo was when my sister and I went over to the island June 28th to see the Squires and be "The Wedding Crashers". After visiting with our cousins, Robb lent us his car so that we could visit grandma and Uncle Dave. We had a great visit and enjoyed our coffees. Uncle Dave showed us his dialasis machine and how it worked. He also showed us his cathator and how they were able to graf one of his veins so that he could dialasis more comfortably by moving the cathator. Little did we know that day that that would be the last time we saw Uncle Dave. 13 days later he passed away. My dad took a trip to Victoria to the hospital to see his brother that morning. Dave was so glad that my Dad came. The nurse told Dad that he seemed to be doing well with the antibiotics. That gave us a little glimer of hope. So he went back to Nanaimo to grandma's house. The call came in that evening that Uncle Dave had passed away. We were all very sad and shaken up. My mom was at Guide Camp and I tried calling there, but there was no answer. Luckily, my sister was able to go to Nanaimo and help make arrangements with grandma and Dad. My Dad stayed in Nanaimo for a week and it was very exhausting. He said he only slept maybe 4 hours a night. When he got home on Saturday, he felt like turning right back around and going back to Nanaimo. My dad loves Nanaimo for as long as I can remember. My mom has decided that they could move to the island. That is a very big step for her. If my parents are moving, then there is nothing keeping me in Williams Lake either. Sean really wants to move back to the island too and I don't think I'll make him wait until he retires to move back. So, we are going to save up and get out of debt and probably move in a few years to Nanaimo or Courtenay. Hopefully I can get a transfer with my job and Sean is pretty much guaranteed a transfer with his job. So, for now we need to get our place fixed up. The siding is over 1/2 way done and we only have a couple of rooms left to renovate inside our house. Then we can sell it and put a huge down payment on a real house one day...hopefully soon!
