Alexander, Sandy, Tex, San-Man and the list goes on of the many names we all fondly call him.  It seems to go in stride with a man who is always singing and calling all of us our chosen nicknames fondly named to us.

Sandy was born in Greely in 1962, being the first born to Alec and Judy Bethune.  He grew up in an ideal country neighbourhood of Green Acres, Greely Ontario.  This was a true “Leave It To Beaver” setting to grow up learning a now coveted way life.  Building a deck, renovating the basement, car problems?  No shortage of help to come by and make sure the job was done and family taken care of in this kind of neighbourhood.  A true way of life I think we all have a yearning to return to.  A time when you knew all your neighbours and no shortage of help and the raising of children with the help of the village.

As many in those days living in a rural setting, learning a trade was outweighed by achieving a higher education.  Sandy was trying to find his way that proved himself independent from his successful father in the construction business.  Alec had moved from building roads to a specialty of sandblasting and painting large machinery and bridges while Sandy moved into repairing and painting cars and trucks.  

It was about this time that I met Sandy.  I was dating a family member so I was often at Bethune family events like wedding and anniversary party’s.  I remember being at a party in Britt, Ontario.  This was the hometown of Judy Bethune, as place that we all visited from time to time to stay with her mother, Ma Mere.  We had all gathered at the legion in Britt and I was doing a side shuffle dance with Alec (this who have ever danced with him know exactly what I’m talking about)  and in walked Sandy to the party.  I was instantly crushing on this tall, handsome and obvious life of the party.  

Time passed, life changed and Sandy and I started dating.  It was so easy to actually be dating your best friend.  We never argued, always had fun and making life plans was an obvious path to take.  Although Sandy was quite a party guy, settling down with my goals of family life was what he also wanted.  

After marrying in 1988, we worked through how we would achieve our plans.  I was still finishing school but decided to start a family.  Blain was born in 1989 and Brooke in 1992.  We bought the house across the street from his parents and began a 6 month complete gut and renovation.  This is when I got to experience the care of the folks in Green Acres.  Every weekend, as long as we had beer on hand, you could always count of lots of people stopping by to help.

As time passed, so did many other things life brings us.  I decided to focus on my kids and career, so we sold the house in Greely, and I bought a house in Hunt Club and moved my job to Canterbury.  This allowed for the ease of walking to school and my job being mere minutes from home.

As the years passed, Sandy moved back to his mothers hometown of Britt.  It was here that he resumed the role of his grandfather, the town carpenter.  Being the strong entrepreneur that he is, Sandy built a very substantial business of building custom homes throughout the Georgian Bay.

I am blessed that the kids got to spend their summers there.  As Brooke worked alongside her dad building homes over summer, I truly believe this is why she is an accomplished building inspector and remains so very close to her dad.  Blain worked each year in a wonderful restaurant across from the Coast Guard docking station.  Here he learned the love of cooking and growing his own vegetable garden and running a sustainable kitchen.

Although we always feel the other sibling is the parent’s favourite, I think Brooke said this as a true observation.  Both kids had gone up to visit Sandy.  Brooke arrived first and Sandy enthusiastically greeted her with love, affection and hugs.  As they were chatting, in walked Blain.  Brooke said the mood instantly changed and Sandy was on cloud 9 being seeing his son.

What I think is also true to his reaction, but interpret it that Sandy was also on cloud 9, but only because he had the 2 loves of his life in front of him!  He has proven himself to be the life of the party, expert home builder but most importantly a loving father to his children.