Vancouver Hotel
I grew up in the West end of Vancouver in the ‘50’s – I was a free-range child as most of us were in those years. A time when parents let their kids play all day outside but MUST come a running home when “the lights came on.”
I born at a time when parents did’t hover or micro manage kid’s schedules. We played kick the can for hours and days at a time. British Bull dog. Tether ball. Gordon house and fish and chips at the Hippocampus restaurant on Denman street. When we were particularly mischievous, we would grad a pickle from a deli down the street and run inside an apartment. We’d take the elevator and punch all the buttons so they (? The people who were chasing us or our imaginations) wouldn’t know what floor we had escaped.
The West End. Every Wednesday after school my sister and I would walk up to Granville Street from our house on Nelson Street to the Commodore Bowling Alley to meet my mom who was playing in a bowling league.
My sister and I were young, but my parents were not concerned. “If you get lost, look for the very tall building with the green roof” said Mom. “You can find your way from there.” The Vancouver Hotel stood out. Itwas so very high then.
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Bill and I met the first time at Simon Fraser University. I was leading a protest of 200 Communications students out of a lecture theatre to discuss/protest the firing of my professor – DR Bob Harper. Bill was a student reporter for the Peak Newspaper and he interviewed me. That was that.
Fast forward. Many years later. 1988. March. New Democrat Party Convention at the Vancouver Hotel. I was a newly elected School Trustee from Burnaby and he was also newly elected but from across the pond in North Vancouver City. Apparently, I caught his eye at an early morning seminar debating whether it was best to run as a municipal party or to run as individuals. I was for the party approach as I my municipal party had just enjoyed a landslide victory in Burnaby.
Bill approached me after the seminar and I was immediately attracted to him.
We flirted and later that evening, danced exclusively with each other at the social in the grand ballroom.
We were as cautious as we could be. Bill was married but separated. He lived alone but had also just come off a love affair with another woman.
I was technically still married, although Ian, my husband of seven years had left me when I was two months pregnant. I had managed to work, run for office, win an election and give birth to a brand new baby. The Convention was my first time out of the house socially. Divorce from Ian was just around the corner.
But Bill and I continued to flirt with each other and before you knew it – some- three months later, we were a couple.
Two years after that, March 28th 1990, John Cashore – then Minister of the Environment and also a United church Minister married us on Grand Boulevard in North Vancouver. 31 years ago.
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Fast forward to Vancouver 2021 – living in a covid fishbowl. We have raised your mine and our family. We have travelled to over 40 countries. Won international awards for policy, initiatives or philanthropy. We have had a rewarding and rich life together. But yes this last year has been tough.
This Sunday, March 28, in honor of us, in honor of our 31 years of marriage, we are booked for a few days at the Vancouver Hotel.