Victor Calvin Barr part 2

Honored and inspired by the feedback I have gotten to my journal, I strive to find more connections and stay relevant in our quickly changing times.  As quick as things have changed they seem to remain madly the same.

My story continues to develop and I reflect on my youth.  As a young man I had dreams of creating and writing, this was overtaken by basic life need; money and love.  Engaged at nineteen for the first of five(!) times, I felt we had the world by the tail.  Buying a house at twenty-three I took a first step toward my goals.  Love can be fleeting and my first love was gone at twenty-three, released to sprout her wings without me, regrets and inspiration mixed with a feeling of loss.

Building a business and owning a home takes time and energy .  Time to create, to write was lost to me, replaced by motorcycle rides, sporting events and concerts.  I love going to concerts. I was very fortunate to attend some spectacular events;   Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and of course Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at the Hollywood Bowl.   Epic times in the day and life of a young Canadian.  It was an exciting time, roommates and lovers, moved in and moved out.  Life was a blast and the joys of youth went quickly.  Until I had the fall.

Twenty-five feet would kill most people, but I was fortunate to be caught my mother.  My Mom who died when I was a mere lad of nineteen.  My Mom whom I will never forget, she loved me and looked out for me and then suddenly left in the night without saying goodbye.  When the mud rushed up to greet my face as I fell from the roof, her spirit was there to ease the blow.  I jumped up from my inglorious impact and claimed to be OK.  Twenty-five years later I know I will never be OK. The pain from that impact has been with me ever since and I continue to feel the effects of that sudden fall.

Calgary was good to me for many years, Grey cup victories and heart breaking defeats.  The city by the Bow held many fun times; Stampede parties, football games in the sun, and camping trips to BC  life was good.  Despite the constant pain I was in I worked 70 hours a week in spring and fall still finding time for love and enjoyment.  Looking back it is all a blur but the time spent helped make me who I am today.  As I reached thirty the candle of my life was burning bright and fast, and I was burning out.  I needed change and I was given that by expanding my business to Kelowna.   Then came my next fall.

This fall came with the sound of a breaking branch, only this branch was my ankle.  I had started the summer with so much hope and expectation.  We had a large high-rise to clean and I had a camp-site set up.  I had my motorcycle and my friends to hang out with.  It was going to be awesome!  Summer in the Okanagan camped by the lake.  Playing Frisbee with my friend Don I caught the frisbee on the run stopped and spun hard throwing the return pass.  When I stopped and spun my whole body turned, my ankle did not.  I will never forget the sound of my own ankle breaking and the terrible feeling inside knowing my summer was done.  The ride to the hospital, my ankle hanging limply braced up on the glove box was the longest thirty minutes of my life.  Bernadette and Brian turned out to be my saviors the next two weeks.  I have a lifelong connection that will never be lost.  We lost Brian a couple years ago, I mourned and remember him fondly.  I don’t see Bernadette enough anymore but I will always cherish our friendship and those weeks she helped me get back on my feet.

When I could get around better I decided to head to my campsite. Camping with a cast on my left leg was not the ideal situation or the dream that I had.   Determined to make the most of it I hung on for a month before I tired of sand in my cast and headed home defeated but not broken.

Despite the aches and pains of my misadventures I trucked along.  I built the largest window cleaning business in Calgary and had life by the tail.  Somehow it wasn’t enough, I still wanted to be a writer and when I had more time I would follow that dream.  Time so precious, so fleeting, passed me by in a rush.  Ten years passed like a fire burning bright, then; gone.  So many great memories in Calgary, yet I was feeling more and more frustrated and lost inside.