I have three sons, Kole, Robert, and Philip.
Kole
I met Kole when he was two year four months old and we have enjoyed a life time of experiences together.
The first thing I noticed when I met him was that he had green eyes like mine and could see us being a little connected.
It is a very complicated situation to have one man raise another man’s child, you will be constantly put in fatherly position with little if any power to control their destiny.
As my family grew with my next two boys coming along, I soon realized how much they were so much the same and at the same time so very different.
I wish I had more patients with my boys when they were younger, unfortunately as any parent, you seem to make mistakes and learn as you go along.
Before Kole my life was actually quite boring and uneventful, but those days are so distanced, a life time ago.
Robert
I met Robert at the Surrey Memorial Hospital when he inconvenience me from getting my morning coffee, he was a 5 minute delivery, which was the quickest thing he may ever do in his life, sorry bud, you do like your rest.
For Robert life was even a little more complicated with the fact that he was a “Silent Starver”, a term when a baby is not getting enough to eat and will not cry.
After round the clock feeding, we got the old boy up to weight and as he got accustomed to the good life, he would always let you know when he was hungry.
It is funny, Robert is my clone, we are so much alike. We love to joke around, maybe a little too much, and we both like having the mike.
One memory I will always cherish is seeing him score his first goal in his U11 year.
It was a rebound and he nailed it, dropping it just below the goal post at the latest possible moment.
Robert number one goal in life is to grow taller than me, a big tall 5′ 8″, with his mom being 5′ 0″.
Philip
I almost never got to meet Philip when he was born, since I had a heart attack a month before he was born.
Years of pushing the limits at work and across the board finally took its toll.
Soon after returning back to work, I was restructured out of my position, as I was told to describe it, but I got laid off.
For ten years I worked from home, lived at home and had zero family, now a family of five, and the desire to be a stay at home dad.
I moved my focus from my career to my sons, started them in soccer at Surrey United Soccer Club, and with that started my coaching career with Roberts U8 team.
I remember Philip coming out to Roberts practices until he was old enough, and thus the start of his soccer career.
Philip has had a good go with the game, making the Teir 1 teams as he was eligible and now playing on the BCSPL league.
Never would have happened if I didn’t have my heart attack, never if I was still working at OMNEX.