I had no idea, the first time I saw the girl with the lopsided grin. We were at a party at our friend Toby's house and had an hour long discussion about music. From Carol King to the Rolling Stones, and BB King as well; I thought, what an interesting person, I would like to see more of her. My good friend Clayton,(Toby), was friends with Terri Mason and another bond was made, which led to be my life-long, soul mate. This was 1988. My eldest son Danny had two homes now and we made the best to make it work. We moved into an old farmhouse with single-pane windows, and almost froze in the Ontario winter of 1988-89 in Haliburton; however, Dan is still with us today! The next hurdle was to get some more babies happening, so Heather figured it was time for some MacLeans as well. Jack Edwin came first, and two years later Conar James arrived on the scene, disguised as a hedge-hog, (Sonic to be precise), We now needed a larger home, and we happened to find an acreage, 12 acres in size, with an old log house needing more than just paint. We rolled up our sleeves and got to work. In the early days I was always working at something, we scrounged tile or someone gave us left-over materials or paint, and made do with what we had. Our home was full of love and no one wanted for anything. The first winter on Queen's line it was -40 for about three weeks and none of the cars would start, but we continued to struggle through and raise a happy healthy family....With a house full of kids it was a lot of work and a great amount of fun. We have always been blessed with extraordinary family and friends on both sides of the clan. Talent and skill abound, Heather, at that time was learning to make her own clothes from patterns and soon had it figured out. Most of the folks work for themselves in various self-employment, although I have had a tough time, to say the least. The log home was built of small logs with cement chinking, in the winter the logs would shrink up and the wind would blow through the walls. If anyone recalls, the first winter we mostly stayed in bed, not always a bad thing! Heather's flair for colour, texture and general sense of proportion has managed to turn some project which could have been a disaster in less capable hands. As the kids got older and we were able to change windows and doors and managed to renovate the entire building including the stone fireplace and turn the old house into one of the nicest places we have ever lived. Heather joked about the 20-year reno. I was able to live in Haliburton by carrying our family trade of building with natural stone, which made my trade a fourth generation in the Haliburton area and were never short of work. In 2000 Heather and I were approched by good friends who were local home builders and had broached a subject which Dennis had brought about going to work for the Kings. With the long term aim having Heather and myself taking over the company when they would retire. Needless to say, I didn't last at the building venue and by 2005 we had to file for bankruptcy. This, of course caused no end of hardship as Heather bore the difficulty while I went west to find work and start over. This chapter in our lives was made much easier with the love and the transition of the move to Alberta. To note, Kevin and Kelly,whom everyone know, volenteered to drive the U-haul all the way to Alberta. Even when Kevin was in pain at this time and no one knew that Kevin,was, himself,harbourining cancer.People and family like this are such amazing folks.
Heather landed in Rocky Mountain House the same time Dan came over from B.C. and was there to unload everything and everybody. Our dogs immediately started pissing people off, as they, (Ed and Gizmo), wanted to say hi, and everyone on the block had cranky little rat-dogs that just bark. Needlesss to say,there was no welcome wagon
. Things get a lot better. Steve and Eileen have been one of our longest friends from Alberta, and when I lived in Camrose with Marcy, our next door neighbours, Brian and Darleen, had kept in touch and we still keep in touch today. Heather also made friends right away being so gregarious. We also met some Rocky folks who happend to be working on the roof of Steve's porch and they lived about ten km out of Rocky. Donna and John have been stalwarts for seven years. We cultivated a great bunch of folks, and have had many great dinners acompanied with lots of great music.
We have tried to get back to Ontario once a year for fun and sun and just to visit, we managed to do this most years,the boys have grown up and wanted their buddy's to pal with and now it's girlfriends and so goes life. In the summer of 2011 Heather had just got hired at the library and was so excited to work there,although she was uncomfortable and could not sit, as standing was easier . As the summer came to fall Heather was increasingly agitated with what seemed to be a painfull back problem. Finally in desperation they sent Heather to Red Deer were they found a tumor in the pancreas. And as they say...
