My dad started out as a journalist. He worked for Associated Press at the Times-Colonist building in Victoria. At times he was a legislative reporter. As a little kid, whenever we drove past the legislature at the Inner Harbour, I’d say proudly: “That Daddy’s Office!” He would later write as a communications officer for various provincial ministries, including Tourism & Culture and Labour.
He was, and still is, an avid reader. Throughout my childhood, Dad would have a fascinating mix of books on the coffee table in the living room. Novels, B.C. history, biography, politics, humour, memoir…the list was endless. I wasn’t very interested in reading until my teens, but I always knew that Dad would soon be tucking in to a new book, one he borrowed from the Victoria Public Library or picked up at a downtown bookstore during his lunch break.
When my dad asked if I’d take the books on his carefully curated bookshelf off his hands and take them home with me, I knew he was changing. In his 80s, he still regularly borrows books from the library, but keeping an extensive library is no longer something that he wants to do, and so I have the collection of books, gathered over a lifetime, that show the strata of his life, his interests over the decades. It’s through reading and reviewing these books that I hope to get to know my dad in a way I couldn’t by asking him questions…
