By Bruce Davidson
It’s never easy saying goodbye to a friend, but in the case of Don, it’s downright painful. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way….just as he was looking to turn a new chapter and do some cool things that that damn knee held him back from. Why he even had a shiny new pontoon boat and a new floating dock set up to launch him on his water-based activities where he could step ashore wherever he wished in our magnificent archipelago. In anticipation of his new mobility, Don did some serious warm-ups last summer cruising around the Mink Islands and points farther south. He also volunteered to assist Peter Pook and myself in finding a suitable location for an osprey platform in the Snake Islands and I can easily visualize him lending his new pontoon boat to the materials transportation cause.
One of the things that set Don apart from the crowd was that he was a giver. That’s a pretty scarce commodity in today’s society and really appreciated. When we asked Don whether he could lay his hands on some old pictures of the boats that ferried patrons to the old Camp Franklin, he rummaged around in the proverbial attic and lo and behold came up with a fabulous
painting of the Mindwandum, circa 1930. Not content with that gem, Don went in to Parry Sound and checked with the gals at the Museum. Generously, Don was the first guy to raise his hand when the West Carling Association were looking for volunteers to vet the draft of Carling’s Official Plan. Who other than Don would give unstintingly of his time for decades attending Carling Council meetings on behalf of WCA?
Another fine attribute of Don is that if he didn’t have the answer, he always knew someone who did. And that was because he spent his lifetime in Carling and made a point of getting to know all his neighbours and everybody else that shared his love of the Bay. And I guess that’s what hurts the most. I can’t pick up the phone any more and simply say “Hey Don, have you got a minute?”