What do you say about a friend for over thirty-five years, who is younger than you, and now is suddenly gone?

Today was a cold day again on Apex (-20C but with less wind than Monday) yet the skiing was quite good — a 4 star day actually. However the chill was nothing compared to the feeling I had after arriving back in town and reading a message from Bruce’s former EA and almost immediately thereafter another message from his current EA: during the night Bruce suffered heart failure and died.

Now Bruce has had a couple of tough medical moments due to strange infections, etc. in the past. I’ve visited him in hospital and in recovery. He has always been a tough cookie, and bounced back. He had not told me that there were any real heart issues. So to say I was stunned would be to put it mildly — I was heartbroken! I cried!

Bruce has been my corporate lawyer for thirty-five years. And in that role he has kept my corporate structures pretty well on-the-straight-and-narrow. He worked with me through a major financial crisis; he coached me through various legal quagmires; he always maintained my corporate records in impeccable order, he gave excellent advice when I had some serious issues with the church. He was a good lawyer, he could always see the end-game. He also believed in giving people a sense of self-responsibility. And so, whenever I needed it, he gave me access to his firm’s massive law library.

He also gave me his office as my office, his EA was my EA. My mail was always collected and forwarded as necessary. Whenever I was in Edmonton, I parked in the corporate parkade for as long as I wanted. If I needed a meeting room, one was always available. Sometimes, if we both at a free minute, we would just sit in his office and discuss the topic of the day. It has been a special arrangement for a long time, never intrusive but always supportive.

But Bruce was much more than my legal stalwart. He was a dear and steadfast friend. He often accompanied me to Edmonton Eskimo games. He and I would discuss politics in an atmosphere of “how can we get things to better”. We seldom had disagreements on what the country or the province of Alberta (or BC for that matter) or even the University of Alberta needed to improve or at least to do to help the people to improve. He was a man of solid faith, a good Mormon who respected my Presbyterian background. On occasion he would challenge me to consider the larger context of religious belief, and we would have some very interesting exchanges on what it means to believe, and why that is important. He even gave me his copy of the Book of Mormon, to read he said, when I was sitting by the fire with time to reflect.

Bruce was bright. He was ethical. He was hard-working. He was intuitive. He was gracious. He was also generous. Whenever we went to Commonwealth Stadium, he bought the food — usually bison burgers and pop (orange crush mostly). He was funny too — especially if the Esks were a bit sloppy on the field. He would have a comment that kept us all smiling, when we would have preferred to go down and swat a lineman or a qb or a defensive back. Sometimes after a game we would walk back to his office and he would drive me to the UofA where my car was parked — and we would be engaged in thoughtful conversation the entire time.

I am going to miss Bruce — I miss him already. I will miss his readiness to answer his phone whenever I had a question of some import that I thought he would have some insight. I will miss him the next time I go to an Esks game and the seat beside me in empty. I will miss just knowing that he truly cared for me, for my professional activities, and for my family. There are lots of lawyers in this land. I’ve known a goodly number. But only about half-a-dozen would I call my friends, and even fewer would I call close. Bruce was really close to me — his departure for the other side of the Jordan, at his age, is more than sad. It has made me cry…

Tonight, say a prayer, not so much for Bruce — God’s already looked after him — but for each of us that remain. May we continue to live such that we make the kind of impact on others, than Bruce made on me.

Bruce: you were and always will be a very unique individual — a true gift from God!

g.w.