As a teenager growing up in Canmore, no trip to Calgary was complete without a visit to the newly opened Don’s Hobby Shop. I’m not sure what it was about Don, but he was always so much more to me than just a guy who ran a hobby shop. Maybe it was that, despite my tender age, he treated me as a friend and an equal.
Years after I stopped building model airplanes, and had my own business, I ran into Don one day. He still remembered me and we chatted about the hard effort needed to run your own business. I never saw him again, but I often wondered how he was doing.
I was, of course, saddened to read his obituary, but I was also pleased to find out all the other things he had done in his life, no doubt touching many other people in his own quiet way, as he had touched me, and living to a good age. And that made me smile.
