Mom, Barbara Beverly Douglas, (nee Johnston) and Dad, George MacIntosh Hughes Douglas brought my brother, Cameron Darcy Douglas home from Woodstock General in August of 1964.  He joined me, George Charles Wallace Douglas born in May 1960, and our sister, Beverly Jane Douglas, August 1961, at our house on Edgewood Drive in Woodstock. We would move to Grosvenor St., a few blocks away in town a year later.  We all grew up in the big yellow house at the top of the hill and mom lives there still. 

Dad was a Captain in the army so Bev and I were both born at army bases: Bev in Petawawa, Ontario. and I up in Fort Churchill, Manitoba.  When Cam was born both his maternal grandparents Virne and Charlie Johnston were alive and his paternal grandmother, Jane, whom we called “Ga” was still around.  Grampa Wally had passed before Cam was born and the others during his lifetime.

Dad’s sister Anne, now deceased, and her husband Morley Shaw, lived in Cambridge with their son David and daughter Jenny.  I remember Aunt Anne telling Morley they had to get a colour TV, because Cam forced short a visit so we could go home and watch “The Yellow Submarine” when it first played on TV.  Cam was a big fan of animation and comics throughout his life.

 Mom’s sister Marjo and husband Bill Knight, both now deceased, lived in London Ontario with their children, Mark, Rob and Nancy.  I remember Bev, Cam, Nancy and I watching  Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, late on a July night in 1969, in our sleeping bags, on the floor of the “gun room” on Grosvenor St.

Cameron attended Hillcrest Public school for kindergarten to grade 5;  D.M. Sutherland Senior Public grades 6 to 8, and went to high school at Huron Park Secondary school.  All three schools were a few blocks south of our house on Grosvenor.  Every teacher and fellow student I’ve encountered in the years since has had a “Cam story” about some prank or incident they remember him pulling.  It started at an early age...I don’t remember where he placed it but my Grampa Charlie found some fake dog doodoo somewhere near, or on his easy chair and when Cam was revealed as the culprit, he exclaimed “The little bugger always has to have something on somebody!” .  My sister Bev is trepidatious opening closets to this day because of a long history of booby traps and other surprises.  During high school art classes he would slip pictures of my dad coming off a slide into the pool amongst the photos of works by Da Vinci and Rembrandt.  He was a gifted artist all his life and long before photoshop he modified photos with only a pen and a photocopier.  His cartoons and birthday cards are legendary.

Outside of school Cam had a great childhood, swimming in the big pool at home, playing soccer and baseball.   In high school he made a couple 8mm films with his buddies Jamie Watling and John Hargreaves.  They all starred, filmed and edited a couple masterpieces of home cinema “Attack of the Killer Squirrel” and “Curse of the Cow God”.  Years before computers, camcorders or iPhones, they did stop action animation, scratched the film for effects and wowed the rest of us with their work.  It was lost for years but Cam gave me a copy of the two films on a DVD for my birthday last year. 

One of the highlights of our childhood was several family trips to an island in the British West Indies called Bequia.  We were so fortunate to travel there 4 times between 1970 and 1980.  Cam maintained connections with friends we made there his whole life and travelled back there with my mother after Dad lost his battle  with liver cancer in 1994.   

It was at Huron Park that Cam met Mary Walters.  Some of their courtship occurred while a dummy occupied the bed where my parents believed Cam to be sleeping.  It was next to a window over the flat garage roof.  Apparently that window was quite busy over our teenage years.  Bev and Cam kept that secret from their big brother as well as Mom and Dad.

Cam and Mary were wed in October of 1983.  Their daughter Briony was born in 1983 and their son Townshend in 1986.  1986 was the year that I wed Donna Dymach and Cam served as my best man.  Our daughter Danielle was born in 1987 and her brother George Jr. in 1989.  They adored their Uncle Cam and both fell prey to wearing funny signs on their backs after a hug from him several times over the years.  I have fond memories of all the little cousins running around at Christmas and on Easter egg hunts.

My sister Bev married Bob Fleming on Bequia,  in 1994, the same day that Cam married Trudie Winspear here in Woodstock.  Trudie’s son Jared joined the throng of kids at the little table at holiday gatherings.  Townshend recently told me of one memorable night at their house on Blandford  St., he and Jared (Briony says she remembers this too), were watching TV in the basement when a scary face appeared at the window...then, just as in horror movies the lock on the door slowly turned and the guy came through the door!  Town ran into the next room screaming “Take him, take him!”... then Cam took off the scary mask.  Trudie and Cam’s daughter Kirsten was born in 1998 but it still seems like yesterday to me.  When they lived on Hughson St., a friend, Duane took it upon himself to attach a Christmas tree to their porch.  Cam’s revenge was to post signs all over town leading to Duane’s place for an early morning garage sale, complete with promises of a continental breakfast and instructions to “knock if we’re not out yet”.
 

Cam and I both worked for my Dad’s firm, Springbank Consulting Engineer’s and the sister company W.A. Baker Surveying.  Cam was a natural in the field and came up with several innovations for the survey parties and construction layout work.  His artistry (and humour) was evident in his meticulous notes with excellent and far more legible penmanship than mine.  He took his talents next to Ingerwood Construction, where he worked as a foreman.  It was at Ingerwood that he met Cliff Zaluski and when Cliff left and formed Sierra Construction, Cam soon followed and worked there until he couldn’t work anymore.  Sierra grew quickly and Cam found himself in charge of larger and larger projects.  The innovations and jokes kept pace but I have yet to meet anyone who ever worked with him as a coworker, inspector, engineer or supplier that didn’t have a fondness for him and a story or two.  He leaves a huge whole in our construction community.

It was about 8 years ago that Cam met and fell in love with Kristine Macrae.  They shared their home with Liam, Kris’ son.  The Pub on Norwich Ave was a frequent hangout for Cam and Kris and his hijinks there are the stuff of legends.  He was banned from having markers or pens of any kind because of drawings on beer bottles and modified coasters saying you’d won a free drink from Josh.  The people at The Pub held car washes for Cam and sent him to hockey games and got him lots of memorabilia from his beloved Chicago Blackhawks. 

Kris was as devoted to Cam as I’ve ever seen any person be with another.  He got his diagnosis of cancer in the fall of 2015 and was told to get his affairs in order right away.  Through all sorts of weather she accompanied and drove him to chemo and radiation treatments, nursed him at home and together they got him declared cancer free twice.  They turned what was supposed to be a few months into three years and I’ll be eternally grateful for that extra time.  One of the silver linings of Cam’s diagnosis was that he had to take time off work and it came at a time when our mother Barbara was recovering from heart surgery.  They were able to spend a lot of time together then and they both loved it. 

Kris told me Cam was back in hospital with pneumonia on Friday June 8. I went up there and spent the afternoon.  His breathing got better and there was hope that he’d get past that and get home for a while but it wasn’t to be.  On Wednesday the 13th, my mom, wife, sister Bev, his daughters, Kirsten and Briony  and son Townshend joined Kris in his room and said our goodbyes.  Liam, friends from work and The Pub came by and visited. There were three or four of us there most times until he passed on Friday morning.  It was a room filled with love and tears and laughter as we watched him fight for breath.   At 10:37 am, Friday June 15th, 2018, Cameron Darcy Douglas passed away peacefully.