My Dad passed away this Tuesday in Vancouver of pancreatic cancer. I had the fortune to have been invited as special surprise guest to my brother’s 50th birthday party by my sister-in-law Rosemarie. So we had the party and then my brother Tom and I visited my Dad during what turned out to be his last few days. I’m glad we chatted and I gave him a hug. Now I’m the only Jim Service in the immediate family — kind of sad that there won’t need to be a Jr. appended anymore.
He is survived by five children: myself, Tom, Jane, Bob and Chris, their spouses: Julie, Rosemarie, Dan, Chrissy and Sharon; one wife and 3 ex’s: Helen, Helen, Jean and DJ; and thirteen grandchildren: Ian, Stuart, Alexis, Nicolia, Rhea, Kyle, Ryan, Nicole, Crawford, Holly, Alex, Sarah, Emma. There are also some step-children and step-grandchildren; however, I either don’t know or can’t remember all their names.
We were working in the same company, Ontario Hydro, for fourteeen years though he didn’t actually do anything to have me initially hired there. The closest we ever got was when I was on rotation as a Trainee Engineer in the same division. Otherwise, we worked at two different locations. So, we were both, nominally, electrical engineers. I tended to use and program computers and he managed to avoid ever having a computer prior to his retirement in 1991.