© MMXXI V.1.0.0
by Morley Evans
Lieutenant-Colonel Fraser Eadie, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion
Fraser Eadie was appointed to be the Ford Motor Company's general manager of its regional head office in Regina when I was in Grade 5 at Lakeview School. Eadie and my father, who was a departmental manager at Ford, became good friends.
Eadie had rented a cottage at B-Say-Tah Beach on Echo Lake that summer. We were invited to visit.
It was a cold, overcast day when my father, mother, sister, and I arrived.
Nevertheless, Eadie's son, Rob, thought we should go swimming!
Rob charged into the lake, "Banzai!" Rob was full of piss and vinegar, like his father. Rob could melt the ice floating on the lake. On the other hand, I was a scrawny, malnourished, asthmatic who was prone to anaphylaxis.
"This is GREAT!" Rob exclaimed!
"Yeah, great," I replied, shivering and miserable.
After a short time, we went inside, where it was warm.
Wrapped in a blanket, I was beginning to recover.
Rob brought out the board game "Monopoly".
"Morley will be good at that," my father commented.
I wasn't.
I had failed to impress my father's boss. I remember that moment being the point when I lost all of my father's confidence and support.
But all was not lost. As years passed, I would excel at surviving ignominious defeat and rising like the phoenix — not unlike Fraser Eadie. I look for my own mistakes and correct them when I find them.
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