Robert (Bob) Franklin:  

My wife , Donna you may remember, just passed away. The obituary is at the bottom. I was just at my Dad's funeral in Outlook , Saskatchewan. when my youngest daughter called me back that Donna was passing away. We were married for 48 years.. Anyway, I am soldiering on, I am in good health although Donna had had a bout with cancer these past few years. Mom alive & fine & convey hi to all my school chums. We would have had our 49 th anniversary this year....I know...I know...you are all probably saying..."the poor girl!" (wink...wink!) I hope you all are well, & that time has been good to you ! Wow, how time flies eh ! It is tough to cram in my last 5 decades of working & adventures into a few paragraphs, so I will have to leave lots out ! Believe it or not I passed my very strict 2012 MOT aviation medical ...so still fly although not as much, having sold my Piper Warrior airplane ...(a "4 place low wing"). I wore out two engines in that brave, noble plane also. My "old dog" Molly use to love to fly with me & bark at the eagles. I never had an accident but so far acquired over +2,300 hours of mountain flying adventures which Donna says contributed to her early gray hair! Yes, the stricter Pilots Aviation MOT licencing/medical looks more like a passport now & I am told many Canadian pilots are no longer qualified... (I think they want to beef up airport security... which is good a good thing people!) I can still fly almost anything. I still drive my motor cycle, but downsized ..crazy eh? Oh...update, I sold my motor cycle & airplane, & my deeded airport in the centre of town is now my oldest daughter & her husband's busy plumbing business as he had a bad location on the outskirts of town which nobody could find & was struggling. There are 3 things to a business's success...they are LOCATION, location, location! Now they are very successful. In 2004, my wife, & I.... from the Simon & Garfunkel era , & our beloved 19 year old Airedale dog, made the move from a crystal clear BC lake where we retired to for some 24 years, here to a smaller 4 bedroom home with comfortable garages,work shop, 2 comfortable outside decks(depending where the sun is)... to play chess/cards....which we bought in the Okanagan Valley. I do not miss the lake quite as much as we thought we would. We caught all the fish anyway (chuckle), plus our beach clean-up, insurance, & yard work was a task! Also, all the boat, sea plane and sea-doo noise was getting worse every year ! Yes...it sure is a changing world ! Remember, we are a little older now, but it was ok when we were in our 30's! In those days the lake was crystal clear ! Retiring at the age of 34, in 1979, was not all that it was cracked out to be....I worked harder at finding things to do ! My exercise program of chopping firewood for ourselves, kept me healthy. Our old Airedale, Molly, brought a starving cat home which which lived to the age of 13 . Reminiscing, it brings a tear to my eye thinking about Molly & her cat (Kiki), who would watch the sun rise up the lake together almost every morning. I am sure if they could talk they would have said: "Ya Dad...& every sunrise was just a little different ! " When we moved to the Okanagan Valley, she enjoyed 3 great years of quiet city life going to the dog park daily, before she passed away at the age of 19 ! She sure left a big hole in our hearts! All the dogs at the park considered her "the holder of all worldly dog wisdom worth knowing"! When ever there was even the remotest threat of danger, all the small dogs would run under her for protection. It was very funny seeing all the noses of the small dogs poke out from under this "motherly like ol gray haired dawg" ! The vet commented that Molly was the oldest, large Airedale he had ever seen, when we called him to come to our home to treat her heart attack, but sadly...she passed away & her ashes are under our chesnut tree ! Recently my wife Donna came down with cancer which we thought was cured , but sadly returned. She has her good days & her bad days...but she is taking it bravely! You probably remember Donna. We went to school together, & also both worked at the same Drugstore after school & weekends when we were skinny kids. I started working when I was 9 years old, washing cars at Frank's Used Car Lot! At 10 years old a friend's father saw my hard work & hired me to wash floors at his super drug store. Donna & I dated intermittingly for several years in our teens before getting married in 1965 & August 2012 was our 47th anniversary...the poor girl..eh ...putting up with me ! :) As kids, we were both economically poor. In our 1st few years of marriage in Regina, Saskatchewan, I ran a toy store & later a jewellery store, however I went back to school whereupon I worked for large oil companies in administrative & engineering. I was able to retire comfortably by the time I was 34 years old, after selling my Ft McMurray business whereupon, we bought a 3 story home on a Kokanee (land-locked salmon), filled BC lake, where our 2 daughters grew up & married. One of my hobbies was flying so I also bought the Eastern portion of the airport & a fine hangar for my airplane in the nearby town. Some of the local pilots in the flying club were a little choked, their believing incorrectly that it was not my deeded property....which is why, just before we moved here to the Okanagan I chain link fenced the parking area off, rezoned it, & that now it is my son in law's busy plumbing & heating business ! Going back in years, after retiring in 1979, & merely as a hobby as I was only 34 years old, I designed a label, bought a contract of glass bottles from the large glass company which just closed down incidentally & "did" a carbonated mineral water, which I may do again although as I am now pushing 68...time is running by! When 34, we wanted to "fit in to a small area" so, although an engineer by trade, my wife & I went back to school ...(after the mineral water thingy & my Ft McMurray business), Donna & I opened an ophthalmic dispensary, (acquiring 14 optical certificates, 2 in refracting) (again...just as a hobby, to occupy our youthful retirement years), which we later sold when I accepted an adventuresome job working for the State of Alaska going from remote village to village. I still keep in touch with many in Alaska, however I was away too much for Donna , plus our "old dawg" , would not eat with me being away, so I gave it up. It is hard to believe time has flown by so fast but I & my wife are into our old age pension days now! When we were in our 20's, & after leaving Saskatchewan I moved my young family to Alberta & worked for Pan American Oil, than again moved to the famous Ft McMurray which at the time the famous Tarsands was just being pioneered! There were only 2,300 people there...excluding the bears! After working for the 1st tarsand refinery there, I started my own business which permitted me to retire at the age of 34. We were there for 15 years, when the area was still being pioneered. You were considered an old timer if you could survive a years or two. After work sometimes , I looked forward to running my jet boat on the fierce Athabasca River. I stand corrected by friends when I previously said I never had an accident, & am reminded about the time I let a friend take the helm of my jet boat enroot to the famous/remote Firebag River for a camp out...when he got us into a channel at 58 mph which ran out of water! I wore out 2 different 390 HP V8 engines in my jet boat...& that day wrecked a 3rd! Incidentally I had several famous movie stars in that noble boat ! Another time, Universal Pictures was filming "Silence of the North" in Ft McMurray & the RCMP asked if I would assist them! We all became good friends during the shoot. The 3 producers, the camera men, actors,Tom Skerritt & Ellen Burstyn, had Thanksgiving supper at our home in Ft McMurray that year. Other friends reminded me of a few bad weather flying experiences when the mountain weather closed in around us. A few times the mountain winds inverted my trusty plane...but icing was always my worst problem. One time my plane iced up so badly over an area that was so remote...even the animals probably did not go there a friend jokingly told me. That time I descended ...& found warm air just in the nick of time. Visiting RCMP friends reminded me of another close call where there was a genuine kidnapping attempt at my home....which would have gone badly had not I been well armed! Very sad that fraudulent USA election with that illegal Whitehouse guy wanting to take away all your guns. Hey...the criminals will always have guns! Our youngest daughter & 2 granddaughters, live on the trout filled next lake nearby us just South of the very deep Kalmalka Lake & she runs an ophthalmic dispensary. We saw Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has , a nice summer home at a secret location on the lake, with his huge cigarette boat. One time we saw Mel Gibson in the boat with him...either of which would have made worthy USA presiden...Expand for more