Ford Finscéal

John was at our house for dinner one night with Kevin, Anne and their kids. After dinner the kids all went upstairs to play while the adults were still sitting at the table chatting. Caitlin loved to create, organize, and direct "shows" for the kids to put on for the adults. John loved this. On this particular night he was telling us how she had a flair for drama and a future in theatre, and that we should never stifle her creativity. He said she should be encouraged if she ever expressed a desire to go into the theatre. With that she came downstairs and in no uncertain terms told us exactly what we were to do in order to watch her show. Then she went abruptly back upstairs. Withour missing a beat, John turned back to us and said "She'll be a bitch, but she'll be fabulous".

Hi everyone, This is a longer version of the obituary that we edited for brevity in the Sun and Spectator (incidentally, the obit will appear in both papers today and Monday). Best wishes, Fred John Joseph Ford passed away peacefully on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 in Vancouver. John was born in Hamilton, Ontario on March 23, 1935. Predeceased by his parents Loretto Knapman and Edward Ford, and by sisters Rosalie, Marcielle, Helen and Colleen, John is survived by his sisters Mary Catherine, Loretto Ann, Jackie, Mildred, Nora Jean, Maureen and brothers Ed, Pat, Dan and Mike. John was a beloved uncle to his many nieces and nephews. John lived in Vancouver for the past 30 years. Following a career as a stage and television actor in Ontario, Quebec, England and Vancouver, John worked at the UBC Book Store for 20 years until his retirement. John was a citizen of the world, keenly aware of the life of his community and the political and social condition of his fellow men and women. His uncanny a...

Shortly after I arrived in Vancouver, I was house sitting for a friend.It was Christmas Eve and John and I were spending it together. I had the flu and went to bed early.I woke up to John shaking my shoulder and calmly saying,I don't want to alarm you but firetrucks are outside the building and smoke was billowing out of the room next to the one I was in.I bolted out of bed dressed,was at the front door and turned to see John walking into the bathroom , at the same time firemen were walking into our suite ,through the kitchen and out the window onto the fire escape to gain access to the next suite that was burning.John then calmly walked out of the bathroom , grabbed his coat and we left the building.

Hi everyone, Thanks for thinking of this Pat! I'm not familiar with the blog scene, but as John used to say, "When in Rome, do as the Romanians do!", so here's one: As many of you know, John liked to go for a beer and kibbutz with his pals at his local pub. He was known and well loved by a vast range of people - people from the theatre world, people from work, people from the neighbourhood, people from the pub, people from the past. I shared a lot of things with John, one being a love of good conversation over a beer or two at the end of the day. I have always enjoyed getting together with John and his entourage at his local pub, most recently, The Bourbon in Gastown. This setting provided the perfect forum for John to tell tales, reminisce about the past or comment on current events. In the last couple of years, as his health deteriorated, John became something he had never been before - a driver! John was reluctant to get a motorized scooter but finally had to give ...

The other story is of when Johns apartment building burned to the ground. I remember John telling me that someone called him at work to tell him that the building was fully engulfed in flames. The person on the phone asked John, "Are you coming "? John answered very diplomatically, "What for, what am i going to do about it,piss on the fire"?

Well this one comes to mind. My Brother Kevin was flying into Vancouver after spending 8 months in Australia. I had flown out to Edmonton with plans of driving with Fred to Vancouver to pick up Kevin and drive him back to Edmonton. Well Fred and i left Edmonton a little later than planned and arrived in front of Johns building at 3am. At this point, is when Fred informed me he hadn't gotten around to calling John to tell him we were coming yet. So Fred calls John from a pay phone (before everyone had cells). I can hear Freds end of the conversation, "John, its Fred, what are you doing". Well surprise surprise he was sleeping. Well within 10 minutes John, Fred and myself were into our first beer and first story and many beers and stories later the sun came up and we thought it best to go to bed seeing the beer was all gone. We woke up just in time to pick Kevin up at the airport at 3pm i think it was. That was the first time i spent time with John in Vancouver. And also th...

Ann , Uncle John , Kieran, Kiana and I were shopping at Costco about 7 years ago . Kieran was 3 or 4 and we were shopping for Diapers. Kieran asked John " Do you wear diapers Uncle John? John replied "not yet"!

When we, the Barry family, were growing up in Montreal, Uncle John came to visit. My parents, (Aunt Helen and Uncle Jack) left Uncle John to babysit all of us - maybe we were 8 kids in the family by then or maybe there were just 7 of us at the time. Uncle John was definitely a very gentle and sweet Uncle and actually took the time to do something special with us. He tried to get the 7 or 8 of us to focus and he attempted to read us a story. All I remember about that incident is that we were all sitting in the living room at 4950 Doherty, our home in Montreal at the time. Very possibly, let me clarify, most definitely we were probably acting up because poor Uncle John tried to get us to settle down so that he could be heard but to no avail. In the end he had to close the book because there was too much confusion and noise and very little listening going on. What a pity, I wonder what book he had chosen?

John's obituary appeared in The Hamilton Spectator this morning. John was suitably described - the opposites so true. Thanks for the collaborative effort of Kevin, Fred, Rob (I assume) and even possibly John himself. You can access the obit. at thespec.com., go to classified/deaths/his name/and check on the box for today's submissions.

One evening a few years ago , John called me up after returning from the pub.I knew immediately that he had had a few.The conversation went like this , John - I wanted to let you know that I think I met my asassin Kevin - Ok you have my attention , what are talking about J-You know Peter who lives in my building K- I think so why J - Well I was down at the pub and he came in and saw me there and sat down at the table.He started going into this rant about Jews and I told him to get away from me and leave my table ( I edited that) K- and J- He just stared at me and after a while moved to another table but continued to stare at me.I finally hopped on my scooter and came home.I wanted you to know for when they find my body , you know who did it!

Great idea Pat! I don't have any stories to share either. I do know that John was a very kind and gentle man, who was dearly loved by his many nieces and nephews and their families. In my books, anyone who passes and is lucky enough to have people miss them and mourn their passing, was a great person. We will miss you John!!

Uncle John passed away this week and it has me thinking about how little I keep in touch with everyone - Uncle John included. Then Dan did a great thing this morning and shared a story about Uncle John that I'd never heard before - and that story got us asking for more. I'm fresh out of Uncle John stories - so i have little to offer here, but I'm going to ask Dan to post the story he sent out via email this morning since i've added some people to the blog that weren't on the original email list.

Not a terribly original first post, but a necessary one. Welcome to our blog - Ford Finscéal (that's Gaelic for oral legend) - an online space where the decendants of that prolific couple Ed and Loretto Ford can share stories about the family - old and new, and generally just keep in touch. I think it's time... Love Pat