Sandra McCulloch: Mystery solved for reunion
Oct. 21 — In October, a former sailor from a U.S. submarine wrote to the Times Colonist, asking for help.
On May 13, 1982, the crew of the USS Pogy rescued two fishermen in the Strait of Georgia after their fishboat burned and sank.
The crew wanted to find the two fishermen and invite them to a 2014 reunion in San Francisco.
I love a mystery and have a knack for locating people through the Internet. I found Dana Gudbrand immediately — he’s listed in the Victoria telephone book.
He didn’t know what happened to the boat’s owner, Randy Lovesin.
Lovesin’s daughter, who lives in Comox, saw the story and told her father, who lives in Nova Scotia.
I got an email: “I’m the guy you’re looking for!”
It was cool to write about a dramatic event 40 years later. It was even cooler that I got invited to the reunion, too.
smcculloch@timescolonist.com
Richard Watts: Tale spiked with twist of history
July 3 — This story was especially fun for a journalist, a chance to scoop Canadian historian Pierre Berton, author of The Last Spike.
It was a chance to revisit the Canada-making story of the trans-continental Canadian Pacific Railway.
It was a chance to tell something previously unknown about the creation of a ceremonial silver spike that never quite made it to its intended event, the hammering home of the Last Spike in Craigellachie, B.C.
Artifact historians Bjarne Tokerud of Victoria and Steve Lunsford of Vancouver also uncovered some very human details to verify the artifact.
Tokerud and Lunsford found an error in a handwritten letter from CPR president William Van Horne to Lord Lansdowne, the 1880s-era governor general, thanking him for the silver spike. For historians, the error explained why Van Horne kept the letter in his personal papers while likely writing another. In his book, Berton made only passing reference to a rumour of a silver Last Spike and never indicated that it had been preserved.
I wrote a follow-up story, published Oct 24.
Carla Wilson: Long hours invested in family
Sept. 8 — After working together every day for 30 years, Connie and Hon Dere closed their Elk Lake Restaurant for good in September.
Their impressive work ethic was fuelled by one great motivator: their love for their two sons.
Hon said, “We just wanted to make sure our boys had a nice future. That’s all we wish.”
Small businesses demand long hours and stamina from their owners.
The Deres are matter of fact about their years of working.
A few days before shutting the restaurant, Connie said, “I don’t say we made a million dollars. We raised two kids; paid the bills. That’s it. Nothing fancy.”
The Deres’ faces light up when speaking of their now-adult sons.
Steve is a software engineer in San Francisco and Edward earned his PhD and is a medical researcher.
Andrew Duffy: This dive raises bar on charm
June 23 — It’s rare that an anniversary story would spring to mind in a discussion of favourite stories, but getting a behind-the-scenes and uncensored look at the Victoria institution of Big Bad John’s did just that.
Maybe it’s the fact the bar in the Strathcona Hotel probably shouldn’t still be standing — there have been close calls with errant flames — or should have collapsed under the weight of the notes, pictures and paraphernalia stuck on the wall. Whatever it is, this story of Big Bad John’s 50th anniversary sticks with me.
It probably comes down to the fact that the bar is a personality, a character, as alive as those of all stripes who belly up to the bar any evening to withstand intermittent showers of peanuts and the odd rubber spider falling from the rafters.
It’s the kind of bar that embraces descriptions like hole-in-the-wall, dive and dump. And that is part of its charm.
Rob Shaw: Inspiring story of courage
Aug. 19 — The story of Evan James’s battle with alcoholism is my pick as my favourite story this year.
Evan, the son of Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Carole James, went public after almost 15 years of alcohol addiction, and explained how becoming a father and connecting with the Umbrella Society, a local group, helped him reach sobriety.
The story also showed the private side of a public figure like Carole, who struggled to support Evan when he attempted suicide during her tenure as leader of the B.C. NDP.
In the weeks and months since the story ran, the society and the James family have fielded dozens of requests for help from families in similar situations who found Evan’s story inspiring and courageous.
Amy Smart: Exploring Cuban ballet defections
Feb. 2 — The National Ballet of Cuba faces a special risk with every international tour: disappearing dancers.
Several defectors have said they sacrificed their country and families for artistic opportunity, which makes the story even more interesting.
While the company is lauded around the world for its traditional, classical-romantic style, dancers wishing to develop contemporary technique say they don’t have the opportunity. It’s a less common reason for defecting than most.
So I found looking at the history of Cuban defection from the angle of art politics pretty interesting. A parallel trend exists in the world of sports, with the country losing many of its best athletes.
While the dancers were expectedly tight-lipped, it was a fun story to explore. Plus, I got to exercise my rusty Spanish skills.
Lindsay Kines: Walk in the woods a good model
Sept. 30 — One of the great things about being a reporter is that, every once in a while, you get to take a walk in the woods and call it work.
Those assignments tend to make up for all the hours spent listening to school trustees debate the merits of a sub-amendment to the amendment to the motion that you forgot 40 minutes earlier.
That’s why my favourite story this year was a report on B.C.’s first nature kindergarten class at Colwood’s Sangster Elementary.
The young students in the program spend every morning, rain or shine, hiking through the Royal Roads University forest that borders their school. They play outdoors, eat their snacks in the woods, and then head back to school for a nap and classroom time in the afternoon.
I spent a morning with them, wrote about it and have been pitching a similar model for our newsroom ever since.
Michael D. Reid: Local stores outlast big chains
Oct. 21 — It was reassuring to learn that despite a multitude of home entertainment options — Netflix, video-on-demand, downloadable movies and so on — many local consumers still embrace Victoria’s remaining home video outlets.
“I was one of the first ones in and I’m determined to be the last guy out,” said home video pioneer Mike Griese, the original Crazy Mike who admits he runs his downtown “playroom” Audio Video Replay more for fun than profit.
Outlets like Pic A Flic and Yo Video, bolstered by great customer service, inspired inventories and great prices, have outlived Blockbuster and other chains they once feared would drive them out of business.
It was rewarding to share these inspiring stories of survival in a business now more niche-driven, and a guide to the best deal in town for movie buffs — Greater Victoria Public Library’s huge catalogue of free-to-borrow DVDs and Blu-ray movies.
Mike Devlin: Megastar recalls days in Victoria
Oct. 17 — It took three months of non-stop wrangling to secure an interview with pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen, the Fraser Valley-bred superstar whose Grammy-nominated single Call Me Maybe took 2012 by storm.
It’s easy to understand why.
Jepsen, 27, was forced to squeeze my interview into a packed promotional schedule — one that was inextricably tied up with her in-progress tour with Justin Bieber.
Shortly after her date with Bieber at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Jepsen talked excitedly about her year to date, one of the biggest in pop music memory.
Her success has everything to do with Call Me Maybe, which spent nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts. The single eventually hit the No. 1 spot in 19 countries, on its way to selling 10 million copies digitally.
“The good thing is, timing-wise, it happened at a time in my life when I’m really ready for it,” Jepsen told me. “I feel like I’ve done the groundwork of really being able to appreciate it.”
Among the groundwork was a stint in Victoria at the Canadian College of Performing Arts. While it’s too much of a stretch to claim her as one of our own, Jepsen had no shortage of Garden City memories from 2004, including cheesecake sessions at Pagliacci’s restaurant.
Louise Dickson: Gift from heaven for poor church
Aug. 30 — Reporters covering courts are exposed to the darkness in people’s lives. One witnesses grief, despair, mental illness, cruelty and poverty every day. So when I was asked to find out about a mysterious pair of 17th-century Ming dynasty chairs that had been discovered in the nave of St. Matthias Anglican Church, I was glad to escape the dreary corridors of the Victoria courthouse.
Sunlight streamed in through the church’s stained-glass windows as Rev. Robert Arril described how the chairs sat unnoticed for more than 20 years. Arril said he often sat for a moment in the -300-year-old chairs, enjoying the luxurious warmth of the rare Chinese rosewood.
He never suspected the chairs would answer the prayers of his impoverished parish.
In the fall of 2010, St. Matthias was in penury. One day during a bible study class, an astute parishioner — an aficionado of Oriental antiques — noticed the chairs and wondered if they were authentic. After examining them more closely, she contacted art experts and several auction houses.
The chairs were auctioned at Sotheby’s fine Chinese works of arts sale in New York on Sept. 11. Their value was estimated at $180,000 to $250,000. The pair sold for $630,000 U.S.
Their origin remains a mystery. No one knows where the chairs with the golden glow came from. But their discovery continues to spread light in the community, helping St. Matthias parish carry on its good works.
Jeff Bell: Sisters truly return to first home
Nov. 29 — My favourite story of 2012 turns out to be one that appeared just a few weeks ago.
It is a story that recalls a group of people who made a vital contribution to the history of both Victoria and British Columbia — the Sisters of St. Ann. This venerable order of
Roman Catholic nuns helped shape our province by establishing hospitals and schools, beginning in the 1850s.
The story details the move by several members of the order to Mount St. Mary Hospital, a care home. The nuns, most of them in their 80s, had to move out of St. Ann’s Residence on a Saanich acreage known as the Queenswood property.
The Queenswood site, long owned by the order, was sold to the University of Victoria, part of a downsizing effort necessitated by a steady drop in membership. As part of the sale, St. Ann’s Residence was phased out.
The sisters are now living in the very same neighbourhood where their predecessors established St. Joseph’s Hospital and St. Ann’s Academy.
Adrian Chamberlain: Jazz legend sets an example
June 27 — Sounded intimidating. The assignment: interview jazz’s greatest living composer.
Yet talking to Wayne Shorter — then 78 — was anything but.
Shorter was cheerful and chipper. Sort of like a jolly grandfather.
In the 1960s, the legendary saxophonist was part of the so-called Second Great Quintet with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Ron Carter. He played on Bitches Brew, one of jazz-rock’s milestone recordings.
On the phone, Shorter joked about playing with Davis, that towering titan of jazz. He imitated his old bandmate’s growl.
“One time, we were playin’ on stage, and he says, ‘Hey Wayne, do you ever get tired of playin’ music that sounds like music?’ I’m getting ready to answer. And he says, real quick, ‘Yeah … I know what you mean.’”
Shorter laughed uproariously.
We chatted about everything from Buddhism to the Stephen Hawking book he was reading.
He was bristling with life.
When I’m 78, I want to be just like Wayne Shorter.
achamberlain@timescolonist.com
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