Alan always made me feel cared for and loved, even though we only met in person a handful of times. That doesn’t always happen with family members who live far distances and aren’t always in contact. He felt more like a sibling of my mom’s instead of a cousin. Maybe that was in part due to the fact they both had such similar caring, family centered and open- door policies. They also were very forward progressive thinkers. I always felt he was there for my family if we ever needed him.
Some of my more special memories include:
Mom always looked forward to talking to Alan at Christmas. It is hard to describe but we all knew mom looked forward to that call and when it happened, nothing else could happen in the house. This was like a marker of the day, just like the serving of the turkey. Because of all the busyness of that day, this was when mom really was smiling, and you could tell this was just for her.
In one of the times I visited Alan and June during my university years, I learned of his passion for cooking and was introduced to Prime rib and how it was to be served. It was as expected, spectacular. He wasn’t very impressed that I didn’t like the horseradish (to this day, I still don’t).
So many of life’s pivotal moments have Alan and his family interwoven with ours, including when we went to visit in 1988. This decided Stephen’s future as geologist and David’s future in computers. During this trip I met their dog (a shih Tzu), I fell in love with this type of animal as we had only had large dogs in our life. These are just some of the stories that we share when we reminisce about our trip.
Love and condolences to June, Keith, Mark, Cynthia and family,
Linda Power and family
