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After a couple of years in Toronto, Ontario working for CIL Paints, and
getting married, Herb and Rose moved to Vancouver, B.C., after her father passed away in July 1956. It took them 4 days and
3 nights driving via the northern U.S. route from Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, with no automotive problems, except
for a burnt out headlight.
Throughout the trip, they only had 6 hours of sleep, and what sleep
they had was in the car. They had to keep on going in order to be in Richmond, B.C. for Rose's father's funeral. In order
to keep awake, Herb would turn the window down to let the cool air in, he would eat and drink a lot of water, stick his left
hand out of the window into the cool air, turn the radio up -- anything to just keep awake and stay on the highway. A few
times he did momentarily doze off, but came immediately awake as the car hit the soft shoulder of the road.
At one point, he was so tired that he thought he would stop and walk around a bit. As he stepped out of the
car onto the pavement, his legs just simply collapsed beneath him. This was a surprise and a shocker to him, it woke him up,
and at that point he realized how dangerous it was to drive with so little sleep. He swore to himself, that he would never
do that again.
When they finally made it to Richmond, B.C., Herb was introduced to the rest
of Rose's family, and half an hour later he went into the bedroom, fell on top of the bed, and fell into a deep sleep, instantly.
They lived at her mother's place for a few months to keep her company, while she gradually got over the loss
of her husband. Herb helped with the work outside of the house, while Rose helped inside.
Herb
and Rose moved out a few months later, and rented a suite in Vancouver, which turned out to be a mistake, so we moved to another
place and we liked it very much.
Our first child (Darrell) was born on June 18, 1957, while
we were living there. These were the happy times, raising our first child.
In the fall
of 1958, with the advice of Rose's mother, we bought our first house, on Granville Ave., in Richmond, B.C. Shortly after that,
on September 6, 1958 Kevin was born.
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