CAMERON, Gary F.
Gary F. Cameron died on February 14, 2017 at the age of 65 after 14 months of living with cancer. I fought no courageous battles - I just used the time to prepare for my expiry date and say goodbye to family and friends. There won’t be a service as we had a cheerful pre-wake party so I could rebut any calumnies! Born in New Brunswick, after spending 2 years as a hippie hitch-hiking in Canada and Europe, I was a midshipman in the RCN and then became a PC with the Vancouver Police Department in 1975. I loved being a street cop! I played hard, put a lot of bad people behind bars where they belonged and tried unsuccessfully to understand why our criminal justice system is so monumentally screwed up. I received the BC Police Honours Award for Valour for my role in a use of deadly force incident, but the greatest compliment I was ever paid was being accepted by the street cops I respected, as one of them. My cop friends (thanks 656 et al!) and my “civilian” friends from here and Fredericton were unbelievably caring and helpful. They gave me space when I required it, took my calls when I needed to talk and tolerated my libertarian-conservative views and dark cop humour. Our movie night crew was extremely supportive, but I don’t think they’ll miss my penchant for picking sappy Rom-Coms when it was my turn to choose! My undying gratitude goes to all of you for being there for us when we needed you. My wonderful sister Lynne flew across the country to assist us, and managed to keep me (relatively) sane with our nightly conversations. My nephews Chris and Ryan flew out here to check on their inheritance (kidding!) and to help out. I’m very proud of all my nephews. My wife Cheryl, who made life worth living ever since we met 32 years ago, was my Rock of Gibraltar throughout the illness. She was the best thing that ever happened to me and I love her dearly. I want to thank Drs. Buczkowski, Scudamore and Segedi and the entire VGH Hepatobiliary surgical team; the superb nurses on Floor 8 of Jim Pattison VGH Pavilion; my compassionate oncologist Dr. Lyly Le and all the Chemo Pod nurses at the FVBC Cancer Agency; the doctors and nurses at PAH and SMH Emerg; the tappers and the kind recovery room nurses at SMH; White Rock Homecare Nursing Services and my GP, Dr. Iso. I got the very best of health care.
I’ll end (get it?) with something else I wrote:
“Kind thoughts that go unspoken, should already have been said. Eulogies comfort the living — they are lost upon the dead.”