Condolences
With deepest sympathy Jean and Family,
Sorry to hear of Al’s passing. I had the pleasure of working with Al for many years in the furniture repair dept. at CBE. I was always impressed with how meticulous he was and his detailed work ethics. Always enjoyed his friendship and his competitive nature when playing darts at lunchtime. Al often caught me off guard with his English slogans that would have an entirely different meaning in Canada. Such good memories! My thoughts and prayers are with you all during this difficult and sad time.
Ross Emery
I will always look back fondly on Allan and Jean’s last visit to Vancouver island with the family. Kit and I got to show them around Victoria and take them to all the British pubs we could find in the city.
I will always remember Allan as such kind, friendly, and heartwarming person.
Jean, my heart aches for the loss of your dear sweet Allan. Such a gentleman, who folded me into a wine tasting contest, a pub meal out, or Darling Buds dinners so easily. Always as dapper as can be, and inevitably on the hunt for a Houdini stick if a little dab of something landed on his clothes. Never a spot to be seen! He will be missed, and thought of fondly at the beach.
Much love,
June Stewart
Hi Al,
It’s your buddy. It won’t be the same this year with you not able to visit us in Salmon Arm. Starting in 1990 you allowed us to be your hosts at least once every year and many years it was twice. Just so you won’t forget here are the addresses you visited; 1040 8th Ave NE (little white house where you stayed in the tent trailer), 261 23rd St NE (house sitting the wrong way on the lot) and 4410 Lakeshore Rd NE (the house where you came for 2 Xmas’s).
Do you remember back in 2006 when you were coming for 2 weeks but stayed for a month? You showed Kit how to build bird houses that year. Or how about in 2017 when you showed up to find our basement flooded. We didn’t have the heart to tell you beforehand but rather than fuss about it, you picked up the shop vac and cleaned up the water while I was away at work.
If our visits had to end, we sure ended it with a bang in 2019. We started off with the trip to Victoria in May, which was a trip of a lifetime. We enjoyed good food, the odd beer and saw some great sites, but the best thing of all was who we got to share it with.
In the Fall of 2019 Chris and I travelled to Calgary to assist you with a small house project. That puts the score at 100 – 1 as you helped me so many times over the years, I am eternally grateful. Do you remember back in 2011 when we built the shed in pieces and hauled it up the steep bank?
After the work was done in Calgary our trip to Canmore with you and Jean was a special one. This was our third trip there with you and we discovered a couple of nice new places to eat. Canmore was a special place to visit with you and Chris apologizes for spilling the coffee.
Looking back on our time together, I first got to know you as Chris’s brother-in-law and over time you became my friend. Our friendship grew over the years and you became my good buddy or mate as they like to say in England. What other person would wait for me to get home from work before opening his beer to go with the barbeque. Al, you were a very special person to me and I feel very fortunate to have known you for 30 years. I just wish you could visit us one more time as we now have a concrete driveway and you would have been able to wash your car right here instead of heading downtown.
All the best to you buddy.
I have some amazing childhood memories of Christmas time. Gran and Jeanie and others put on a great spread. Grandad, Allan and my Dad (Vic) all standing behind the bar singing, laughing singing again. I never saw Uncle Allan with anything but a smile or look of concern for others. Auntie Jean I'm so sorry, I am so happy we went for lunch at the Stickey in Victoria. I love you!
Allan will always be in our hearts. We have some very fond memories.
Jean Ann and Kay
How do I write a memory of ‘My Al’? - that’s a hard one.
Allan married my sister the year I was born so I have never known a world without his love.
Having lost his Mum at an early age, he immediately became another son to my Mum and she adored him as he did her. I became his practice child. Allan was the person rocking and singing to a baby with colic every night for nearly 2 years; our bond was secured .Growing up as much a part of his family as my own, he was always teaching me. Sundays were spent exploring the Kent countryside where we shared a deep love and respect for nature. The hedgerows, fields, the seasons became part of our shared life. Spring bluebells or Autumn conkers we loved it all. Special days meant a seaside visit. Allan was a great sketcher and as I grew up, he encouraged me to join him with pencil and pad. One such afternoon just before leaving England, we sat in a spring sunshine, Stonehenge in the background, pencil in hand, we talked about leaving England, what we would miss and the excitement of a new life in Canada. Allan taught me to love making crafts and hours we spent with glue and glitter at the kitchen table in December! He had such a love for wood and made so many lovely pieces for us all. Happiness was ‘ a lump of wood’ and a project. You would have laughed to see his little car full of wood sticking out the windows with Jeans hand holding them steady and a red flag waving like an Arsenal banner. My home is full of tables, trays, boxes, birdhouses, all made lovingly by Al.
In Canada, our weekends would be spent camping in the Rockies with John Denver playing on the, dare I say it, cassette! Al soon became a dab hand at the art of the Bar B Q. Long weekends we would drive to Mara Lake and connect our camping spots with tarps as we nearly always arrived in the rain.
In the last 30 years of my living in BC, Allan and Jean have visited with us once, twice or thrice each year. We have had so many happy times, so many adventures, so many trips making more memories than we can count. Every summer by the Shuswap Lake, Big Al was in charge of the BBQ while we lined up tables and invited whoever needed feeding. We call this our Darling Buds of May dinner. Coming from the H.E. Bates book where meals were eaten in the Kentish orchards with everybody welcome. We blended two cultures. He loved a good ‘nosh up’ and we spent many happy hours finding new restaurants, having picnics, or a concocting a ‘full english’ breakfast. Allan always arrived for his holiday with his work clothes packed knowing Brad and him would have a project. Be it new decks, garden shed, or cleaning up after a flood, Al got stuck in. By the way, Allan’s work clothes looked like our best ones! Allan was always a dapper dresser; shirts crisply ironed by Jean, a waistcoat and his beloved hat he would throw on working gloves and say he was ready! Relaxing meant his Arsenal kit on with a glass in hand, sitting in the shade. He always said he had had enough of the sun when he was conscripted into the Army and sent to Egypt.
‘My Allan’ - the person in my corner, on my side, had my back. Loved me for who I am, with all the warts, and never tried to change me. The gentle, kind, funny, polite, loving, beautifully attired, gentlemen that loved my sons as grandchildren and taught them well - they all aspire to be like Allan, but know its a tall order as he was a one-off. My Allan - the man who talked my Dad into giving me pocket money; who made sure Dad got me a Christmas tree even though we weren’t going to be home that year; fought over the bill with me at every restaurant; the reason I still use rhyming slang in my vocabulary; why I cheer for Arsenal; the man that never left without huge hug and reminding me always I was ‘his girl’.
So I think you will agree, Brother in Law doesn’t begin to describe my relationship with Allan: He has left a big heart hole in many of us but I am so lucky to have lived my life with Allan in my corner and I know that’s where he will stay. Whether you call him My Al, Our Allan, Uncle Allan, Dad, Big Al or Mr. Andrews I ask you to raise a glass (yes Al, it’s Stella Artois) and say, with me our favourite toast “Happy Holidays”. Forever LOVED by your girl.
My enduring memory of Allan would be when we were all on holiday in 1977. He had driven us all into the centre of San Francisco, continuously warning us that he would park up before he hit the famous hairpin bends of Lombard Street. The inevitable happened. He found himself at the top of the street with no option but to go down it. We all survived and he had delivered another experience for us all to remember.
The holidays we spent with the Andrews family over the years remain cherished memories for all of us, made special by the effort and thought Allen put in to our wellbeing and enjoyment. He will not be forgotten and will remain a dear friend of our family.
Jeanette Longhurst ( nee Houghton)
Allan was a very dear friend, loved by all of my family. We spent many happy holidays with Allan and family.
Trudi remembers his B,B,Qs especially the beef burgers.
Nothing was too much for him, he gave us all a love for Canada..
I remember Allan as my Forever Friend.
Vera
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