One year later

So it's a year today, Aug 23, that we lost Alan.  Our recent trip to the homeland gave me a chance to lay some of his ashes in a loch close to his roots.   We chose LochEarn in the Trossachs where we stayed since it's so beautiful, peaceful, and scottish.  There are many other places we could have chosen but he would have liked this one for the handy local pub, lovely lake, perfect views, annual highland games, lots of motorbikes going through the area due to the outstanding winding roads, and a really good chance we'll be back to visit.   We had great weather which puts it in a better light, so to speak, but I don't think the 'normal' weather will bother him too much.

RIP Alan.

Here are the pics for all to see.
The Loch.

The highland games sporting a Canadian flag and of course the Scottish ones, the highland lassies, and a shooting gallery that hopefully misses the plane.

The pub.

As an added bonus, very near by, the grave of Rob Roy, good company.

And finally, the resting place, eerily highlighted by the morning sun, or maybe...

Alan's Celebration of Life

Welcome to Alan's celebration of life by his brother, Ron 

Alan McGowan - May 17, 1950 - Aug 23, 21012

Alan was born in Edinburgh in 1950 on a cold and wet day in May.  But it was a happy day for mum and dad, Peggy and Charlie.  Their first born.  A mass of red hair and large lungs.  Early life in Scotland was short and sweet.  Our parents had to move to England for work so that's how his Scottish brogue was lost forever.  

He would be embarrassed if he could see this one.

Us with Dad, me and Alan, back row Mum, Poppy's mum, mum's mum, Poppy, mum's dad.

Our grandad  introduced him to 'football' at his local stadium.  

That part of Scotland stayed with him forever and he loved to follow the UK football games as much as he could.  Of course he followed more local teams where he lived in Luton and London, such as Chelsea and Westham and followed them more than others.  He could never get into hockey when he came to Canada, but he did love his football!
  
We grew up in Luton, Bedfordshire.  Dad was an engineer and mother a teacher.  Dad liked to tinker with cars and was also an enthusiast with motorbikes.  This rubbed off on Alan and led to many a night helping dad repair cars in the car pit in the back yard, and then led to owning his own Velocette Valiant flat twin that he loved. 

He couldn't decide on mod or rocker early on so started off with scooters.  There was a well ridden Vespa he loved to ride around Luton on. 

From an early Rocker

To a mod

 and back to a Rocker, later in Vancouver

Our family made many trips up to the Orkney Islands where dad was born.  Our grandad was a minister who was posted there.  Alan never had sea legs and hated the voyage from John O’Groats to Stromness.  In those days the boats did not have stabilizers!  Once in Vancouver we took Alan and Teresa out for a yacht trip.  Alan was with Teresa for many years before he came to Canada, and he brought her out to visit a few times.  As you can see (or is it sea?), he was the only one in an oilskin, maybe to hide the green color?  This is from the 80's with Alan and Teresa, Maureen, Mark (our friend and work pal of mine who I'm back working with today, hard to believe).

There were also many family holidays to the Jersey in the Channel Islands.  These were great times and always included trips around the island to see battlements from the war, castles, and great beaches.  Our uncle Ian and wife Poppy lived here for a number of years.  The holidays were camping ones but when it rained we always went to Ian and Poppy’s house for treats and pampering.  Jersey was responsible for giving Alan a taste of the outdoors which he loved to do also in Canada.

Here's a picture of Alan with Poppy.

Growing up in Luton in the 60's and 70's was also a gold mine of rock bands and live music concerts.  He was always quoting bands he'd seen from this era.  This was a great time to see the likes of The Who, Fleetwood Mac, The Moody Blues, and Rod Stewart.  He loved pointing out that a rocker from this era, Paul Rogers, lives in White Rock!  He loved watching The Old Grey Whistle Test, again featuring bands from this era.  Later on, he following many other new bands such as Simple Minds (from Scotland), Eurythmics (he was particularly fond of Annie Lennox).  He was fortunate to see her in Vancouver a few years back and was always reminding everyone of this!  

Here is a list of the music I picked out to play at his celebration of life that summarizes his varied interests (ok, and some of mine I was always pushing on him).

For work, Dad’s engineering was favored over Mum’s teaching and he got into drafting fairly early.  Eventually this led to work in that field doing plans for house extensions in and around London where he lived for many years. We also shared a house in Flitwick, Bedfordshire with our friend Tim.  We shared many an event in that house, including one memorable night in Luton at a local night club where I met my future wife while Alan and Tim fought over her sister. 

Thanks Tim for being such a great friend to Alan over the years. 

Here's a pic of us with Tim and his family on a visit to London not too long ago. 

And one of Alan, Tim and I at the Bo Peep pub.

Soon after I emigrated to Canada with Maureen, Alan took up the reigns of 'brother in charge of parents'.  Alan's kind nature and sense of responsibility served him well in ensuring mum and dad were well looked after.  It was during this time when dad died and Alan needed to be particularly attentive and caring which came naturally to him.  Mum then made the difficult decision to emigrate to Canada and Alan decide to go with her, again so that the family could always be together.  This was a big priority for Alan.  He didn't have his own children but cared about the family being together more than anything.  Alan was with his lady from Italy, Maria, at the time and she also decided to brave it and take the plunge into Canada.  So they all came over and settled near us (we'd emigrated a number of years prior).  Alan and Maria got married in Canada and were happy for a number of years.  

Here's Alan back then with Maria and our little Ross.

In Canada he took up the challenge of finding new work and began a successful career as a home inspector.  This brought his extensive experience of house construction with his ability to get along with people together to form a lasting partnership with clients and their houses.  Many will remember him for his honesty and integrity when it came to balancing the sale with the responsibility of making sure his clients were taken care of.  Even in the recent years his was still navigating crawl spaces to leave no stone unturned.   And sometimes with the scars to prove it!  It was a house inspection that brought Alan and Louise together in recent years and to eventually marry and settle in South Surrey with us.  Here's Alan and Louise with big Ross at his grad.  

Here's Alan with our Alex at Alan and Louise's wedding.  

Louise's side of the family is large and came together every year at Big White which Alan enjoyed, again because the whole family was together.   There was always a toast (or 2) to the new year at Big White!  Here's Maureen, me, and Alan at Big White.  

And with Moray, our cousin, toasting the new year when Moray came on a Canada adventure and ended up with us at Big White.

Tim  became a lifelong friend and he and his family came to Canada to visit and with Alan and Louise and also to share holidays when they could such as the Cayman Islands which Alan really enjoyed.

He also loved to go for breakfast and brunch anytime of day! Unfortunately he never made it to qualify as an International House of Old People (yes, IHOP) frequent customer, but do go there, and have bacon and eggs anytime of day just for him.

Alan did love his cars.  Here's some older pics.  After 2 wheels he graduated to 3, the Messerschmitt below (not his, but the same) was well used in his college days.  You changed gear with a stick like a motorbike, rocker style.

Then on to 4 wheels, more of his love true be told, safe from the weather!  The MG Midget was his first love, but later he had a Lotus Elan (same deal, picture not his, but the same) which was also my favorite, except the twin carbs needed to be tuned every week!   

He was the worse back seat driver though, he had to be in control, feet on the pedals!  Once with our friend Noel after an evening at a pub (ahem), we were driving down a country lane that suddenly (well it seemed sudden) forked in 2 directions, but Noel went straight :(  All we remember as we drove into the ditch was Alan from the back seat screaming, "don't panic!".  I think his loath of being a passenger though came from the time we we driving down to Salisbury on an icy winter road and I ended up rolling my nice VW Beetle (not the first time either!).  Oh well, we survived, and in the end, he did have a good life for the years he had with us.

 

Even in Canada Alan still made it a priority to visit friends and family in the UK as often as he could.  Our uncle Ian, wife Marianne, sons Alastair and Moray (not in picture) were always top of the list to visit when landing in the UK.

Maureen's sister Sheila, me, Maureen, Marianne, Alan, Ian, Alastair

Rusty dog, Alex, Emad, Ross

Alan spent time in Italy and France with his friend Jim who also came to visit Alan and Louise in Canada, and recently had a memorable holiday in France and Nova Scotia with Louise’s sister Leslie and husband Robin. 

He loved to travel and was a natural at chatting to anyone in the street, even if they spoke a different language!
And finally, a collage of photos of Alan in his later years, so to speak.

R.I.P Alan, you will be sorely missed by all those whose lives you have touched and cared for.  I hope there are houses in heaven to be inspected, football matches to watch, motorbikes to ride, rock bands to see, and travelling to do.  

You have a lifetime of memories to share with your friends and family up there, now and in the future.